la/ 




/ 




ON NORWAY 



OR 



A BRIEF JOURNAL OF A TOUR 



MADE TO THE 



NORTHERN PARTS OF NORWAY, 



IN THE SUMMER OF 

MDCCCXXXVI. 

7 S3 



BY WILLIAM DAWSON HOOKER, M.D., 

PROFESSOR OF MATERIA MEDICA IN THE ANDERSONIAN UNIVERSITY. 



Ulterius nihil est nisi non habitabile frigus." 



(unpublished.) 
SECOND EDITION. 

GLASGOW: 

PRINTED BY GEORGE RICHARDSON, 35, MILLER STREET, 

MDCCCXXXIX, 



TO 



THE VERY REVEREND DR. MACFARLAN, 

&c. &c. &c. 

To you, my dear Sir, have I ventured to dedicate the following pages, de- 
scriptive of a "summer vacation" spent in a voyage to the arctic shores of 
Norway, and of a few weeks' residence among their interesting inhabitants. 
This excursion was undertaken at a very early age, with the view of gratify- 
ing a thirst for travelling, and an ardent love (inherited though it be) of the 
works of nature, while yet a student in the College over which you have 
long presided with so much honour to yourself and usefulness to the 
Institution and to the country at large. 

I have the honour to be, 
My Dear Sir, 
With the highest respect, 

Your faithful and obedt. Servant, 

W. D. HOOKER, 

Woodside Crescent, > 
Glasgow, Sep. 30, 1839. J 



REFERENCES TO THE PLATES. 



Tab, I. — View of Hammekfest, the most Northerly Town in 
Europe, 

Tab. II View of Kaafiore*. 

Tab. III. — Miscellaneous Plate, 

Fig. 1. Laplander at Kaafiord. 

Fig. 2. Norwegian Yawl. 

Fig. 3. Norwegian Oar. 

Fig. 4. Norwegian Rowlock. 

Fig. 5. Scene in the Forest of Alten. 

Tab. IV. — Miscellaneous Plate. 
Fig. I. Lure. 

Fig. 2. Cow's Collar and Bell. 
Fig. 3. Domestic Utensils. 

Fig. 4. Laplander with his Skies or Snow-Skaites, and Guiding 
Pole, 



JOURNAL OF A TOUR 

TO THE 

NORTHERN PARTS OF NORWAY. 



An opportunity having" been afforded me of visiting this remote 
country, which few travellers have ever seen, and which I 
imagined would present both numerous and interesting subjects 
of Natural History, especially relative to my favourite study 
of Ornithology, 1 set out from Glasgow for London, on the 
7th of J une, ] 836, expecting that the vessel in which I was 
to take my passage would sail very shortly. In this expecta- 
tion I was disappointed : a considerable delay intervened ; 
and while this was partly an advantage, as enabling me to see 
many objects in London connected with my projected excur- 
sion, and to converse with several individuals who could com- 
municate valuable information on this point ; still it proved, 
eventually, a serious disadvantage, as the sequel of my jour- 
nal will show. My time in the metropolis was pleasantly 
spent, — thanks to the kindness of my friends, especially of 
Mr. Christy,* in whose house T was staying, and with whom 
the plan for visiting Norway had originated. 

* The late William Christy, Esq., Jun., FL.S for it is with the deepest 

regret that my family has just received the news of the death of this 
excellent and amiable young man, which took place at his Father's resi- 
dence in Clapham Road, Stockwell, Surrey. He was the friend and patron of 
Botany, and died in the prime of life, after a lingering illness, beloved of 
all who had the happiness of his acquaintance. 



6 



JOURNAL OF A TOUR 



All my arrangements, purchases, &c, had been completed 
for some days, when we received notice to send our goods and 
chattels on board the Harriet, which was the vessel destined 
to convey us to Norway. She was a well-built schooner, of 
about 230 tons— a rapid sailer — and one whose tout ensemble 
every mariner would survey with feelings of delight. 

On the 28th of J une, our party, consisting of Mr. Christy, 
whose attention was chiefly directed to Botany, Mr. Walker, 
an Entomologist, and myself, sailed from the Thames. There 
were also three passengers for Alten } or Kacifiord, all gentle- 
men in connexion with the mines of the latter place ; namely, 
Mr. Crowe, who is the manager of the mining establishment, 
and who holds likewise the office of English Consul, at 
Hammerfesf, — the most northerly port and town in the world, 
— his son, Mr. J ohn Crowe, who was going to settle in the 
same place, and Mr. Gait, a friend of these gentlemen. 

After some days, we got out of the Nore, and passing 
Yarmouth Roads, lost sight of land. Time soon began to 
hang heavily on our hands, when we could discern nothing 
but sky and water to divert our attention ; fishing, also, be- 
came poor sport, as we seldom caught any tiling but a few 
Grey Gurnards ; thus, rifle and pistol-shooting at empty 
claret bottles swung at the yard-arm, constituted our chief 
amusement. When the weather was warm and calm — which 
it often was — we plunged into the sea to refresh ourselves, 
but the increasing frigidity of the water soon chilled our in- 
clination for bathing, which became impracticable from this 
cause, by the time we reached the latitude of the Shetland 
Islands, though the heat of the sun was quite scorching. 

The farther north we proceeded, the longer grew the 



TO THE NORTHERN PARTS OF NORWAY. 



day, and soon there was no night at all. When, for the first 
time, Sol showed himself above the horizon, at twelve o'clock 
at night, we all remained on deck to enjoy this — to us — novel 
spectacle ; the orb seemed, when viewed through coloured 
glass, of an enormous size, and appeared as if flaming, while 
the temperature of the air fell about 3° below what it had 
been at six, p. m.* Another phenomenon presented itself 
shortly after, which was a Parhelion or double sun ; we did 
not see the entire diameter of either orb, one of which was 
above, and the other below a strip or band of cloud ; five- 
sixths of the lower sun were visible, and about three-fourths 
of the upper one, the unseen portions being concealed behind 
the cloud. It was a little before midnight that this appear- 
ance took place. 

In these latitudes we frequently saw the Lestris Richard- 
soni, and L. parasiticus, chasing the other gulls, and causing 
them to disgorge their prey ; sometimes, however, they took 
all this trouble in vain, the gull being either stubborn, or hav- 
ing nothing to disgorge. The rapidity with which these birds 
will turn in their flight, and catch any substance that the 
gulls let fall, is truly astonishing ; it seemed quite immaterial 
how near the ejected matter might be to the surface of the 
water, or in how great a number of fragments it might be 
vomited, every particle was instantaneously seized and swal- 
lowed. 

On entering the Arctic circle, we found that there was a 
fine to be paid, as is the case on crossing the equatorial Line. 
The penalty, on refusal, was tarring, shaving, and baptizing: 

* Owing, as will be afterwards seen, to the loss of the earlier part of my 
journal, I am unable to state, from mere recollection, the day that we first 
saw this, or the lat, and long, we were in at the time. 



8 



JOURNAL OF A TOUR 



this unpleasant ceremony we, however, contrived to escape ; 
the captain not being- a very brilliant calculator of latitudes 
and longitudes, and the crew being thus ignorant of our posi- 
tion, till we had already entered the circle some hours, when, 
of course, we maintained that their claim was invalid, and 
not a little rejoiced were we at our good fortune, for the 
sailors do not begin by offering the choice of a fine or the 
ordeal, but administer, in the first place, an abundant drench- 
ing with the frigid waters of the Icy sea, calling out at the 
same time, " how much to let you off?" and when the poor 
shivering wretch opens his mouth to make the bargain, in 
rushes a flood of salt water, by which he runs a good chance 
of being made very sick ; thus lie has often both to suffer and 
to pay. 

In ten days after leaving Yarmouth Roads, we came 
abreast of the Loffoden Isles, which exhibited most curious 
and extraordinary shapes ; some of them being sharp, rugged, 
and conical, while others had table-land summits, with 
glaciers of great extent, and immense patches of snow, ex- 
tending very low down their sides, even within a few feet of 
high water mark, exposed to the full rays of the sun, and yet 
remaining unmelted all the year round, owing, chiefly, I sup- 
pose, to their great depth, — for most of them lay in gullies 
and hollows, — and partly to the intensity of the winter's frost. 
Here we saw what is termed the loom of the land ; this is the 
flat appearance which distant land assumes, however rugged 
and broken its outline may really be. Again, some islands 
will look as if inverted, and extending along the surface of the 
water, with which they appear connected by a slender stalk, 
like some kind of mushroom. Sometimes, under this delusion, 



TO THE NORTHERN PARTS OF NORWAY. 



1) 



two or three islands run into one another ; each one, however, 
retaining- its own characteristic stem, as it were ; changing 
their forms into the most amusing and whimsical shapes im- 
aginable every minute. 

One night we were gratified by seeing a splendid luminous 
cloud, similar to a mass of iron heated to whiteness, or per- 
haps more aptly to be compared with the rays of the sun 
striking upon a mirror, but even more brilliant; so dazzling, 
indeed, that I could hardly glance at it ; the same phenom- 
enon, but considerably inferior in brilliancy and splendour, 
presented itself some weeks after, when we were at Alten. 

Whales, I might almost say, swarmed around us, many 
of a very great size. On the 11th of July, two of \ these crea- 
tures, each ninety feet in length, came and played round the 
vessel within three yards of us, remaining a considerable 
while, diving and rising at intervals, and every time they 
appeared above the surface, ejecting water from their blow- 
holes, and then descending head foremost, flung their tails 
high in the air; or remaining with their heads perpendicularly 
downwards, lashing the water into foam with their enormous 
tails, as if to show us the tremendous power and strength 
they are endowed with ; they seemed, indeed, full of frolic. 
These " monsters of the deep 11 do not blow, as is usually re- 
presented in pictures, where they are commonly portrayed as 
throwing up two splendid jets d'eau into the air, but they 
emit with great violence and with a sound like the letting off 
a very large rocket, — a sound that may be heard in calm 
weather, when the animal is at too great a distance to be 
seen, — a quantity of water, in the form of a very dense mist, 
which rises upward about fourteen or sixteen feet, escaping 

R 



10 



JOURNAL OF A TOUR 



much in the same manner as steam does from the safety- 
valve of a high-pressure engine. Mr. Crowe, who is well 
acquainted with the whale-fishery, says, that had our vessel 
been coppered, it is not improbable they would have rubbed 
themselves against her sides, or gazed to admire her bright- 
ness, for Leviathan, especially if the metal sheathing be new 
and brilliant, seems as much pleased with it as a child with a 
new penny. It must be recollected, that the whale I here 
speak of is not the Greenland whale, which seldom exceeds 
sixty-five feet in length, but the Rorqual, or Finner whale, 
as the fishers call it, Rorqualus borealis ; its size is often 
much larger than those we saw*— their motions are very 
rapid — their blubber scanty—and the baleen, or whalebone, 
short — so that this whale is not worth the general attention 
of the fishers, nor indeed can it be caught by the usual means. 
Mr. Crowe told me that an expedition, in which he had some 
concern, was fitted out for the express purpose of killing these 
whales, and instead of harpooning them, they fired Congreve 
rockets into the animals; but the consequences were not cal- 
culated upon. They killed plenty by that plan, it is true, but 
failed in catching them, for the intestines, &c, being blown 
out by the bursting of the rocket, the fish invariably sank. A 
much fuller description than I can here give, will be found 
in the Naturalists' Library, a work edited by Sir William 
Jardine ; the volume upon this subject every one interested 
in that department of the works of Nature should read, and 

* It may be asked how we ascertained the length of the two whales here 
spoken of ; the method was very simple, — they lay alongside of, and close 
to us ; we, of course, knew the measurement of our vessel's length, and 
thus calculated to within a foot, the whale's dimensions ; the value of such 

carcases as those, would be about £50 each. 



TO THE NORTHERN PARTS OF NORWAY. II 

I need hardly assure him his time will be'fully repaid by the 
amusement and instruction received. Grampuses, porpoises, 
and a species of shark were continually tumbling about, 
blowing and disporting themselves in the water. 

(Since returning from Norway, I accidentally saw in Cap- 
tain Basil Hall's Fragments of Voyages and Travels, the con- 
firmation of a circumstance which I had previously forborne to 
speak of, fearing that from its extreme improbability, it would 
merely be set down as a young traveller's tale,—- i allude to 
the fact of whales leaping clean out of the water. I myself 
saw one of these creatures, apparently in a sportive mood, 
spring upwards horizontally, to a height about twice its own 
breadth above the surface of the sea, three times consecutively, 
Mr. Christy and several other individuals were witnesses with 
myself to this freak of the unwieldy Leviathan. The day was 
warm and bright ; several other whales were blowing and 
rolling about, raising themselves considerably out of the water, 
but no other played similar pranks, or cut such capers, all of 
which seemed executed for its own special amusement, and 
without any apparent cause. Had there been gulls soaring 
above, I might have supposed that the whale was tempted to 
spring at them, like a trout at a fly ; nor could I descry any 
object from which the animal might desire to flee. On read- 
ing the above-mentioned work of Sir William Jardine's, I 
find that the Greenland whale sometimes performs this feat, 
but the cause is unknown.) 

Acerbi mentions that sharks are seen at Altengaard, and 
though, by all the accounts of the people at Hammerfest and 
Alten, this author is not always to be trusted, and never so 
much as visited the North Cape, of which he gives such a par- 



12 



JOURNAL OF A TOUR 



ticular description ;* yet, in this instance, he speaks the truth ; 
though, indeed, I never could learn that these creatures are in 
any way to be feared. 

On the night of the 13th, the sun shining brightly all the 
time, we fell in with two Norske fishing boats, who tried to 
avoid us, supposing that we wanted them to pilot us through 
the Loffoden Isles — a service they are compelled by law to 
render, if required. We made up to one of these, and Mr. 
Crowe, who speaks Norske as well as English, conversed with 
the boatmen. They had a quantity of newly-caught fish, of 
which we selected the following for purchase : — a huge Halli- 
but, weighing about two cwt., and measuring five feet in 
length ; a Cod, the largest I had ever seen ; three great Torsk 
or Tusk ; and four enormous Ling : for this supply we paid 
half a dollar, or two shillings sterling, and it proved much more 
than our whole ship's company could consume, even had they 
eaten nothing else, for several days. The fishermen were 
clamorous for a dram, as they termed it ; at Mr. Crowe's sug- 
gestion this was given them in equal portions of whisky and 
water, at which they made wry faces, and wiped the water 
from their eyes, exclaiming that it was " meiget stoerk" — 
very strong, but they nevertheless pronounced it " meiget 
gut" — vastly good, and begged for more. These men were 
rather under the middle stature, with sharp features, high 
cheek-bones, and sallow complexions ; their hair was long, 
ragged, and sandy ; their beards of the same hue, and very 

* It is supposed that he described Hojoen, instead of the North Cape, a 
small island near Hammerfest, of which I shall more particularly speak 
hereafter. 



TO THE NORTHERN PARTS OF NORWAY. 



13 



scanty ; their eyes were light blue or grey, and the general 
expression of the countenance particularly good-humoured, 
and even waggish, especially when they looked up ; their eyes, 
shaped like those of the Chinese, did give their faces such a 
droll cast. As to their dress, they wore tightly-buttoned jackets 
of light-coloured coarse cloth, wide trowsers, red caps, like 
night-caps, made of thick woollen material, mittens of a 
similar fabric, but white, tipped and cuffed with black ; the 
latter were particularly beautiful, very fine, and of snowy 
whiteness ; I wished much to purchase a pair, but the owners 
could not be induced to part with them ; on their feet they 
wore the Komager. (To this kind of shoe, as well as to the 
peculiarity of their boats, I shall allude on a future occasion.) 

The fishing-boat had not left us many minutes, when we 
found that a very large Coalfish (Gadiis carbonarius) had be- 
come hooked to one of the lines that we always kept trailing 
astern. To an inexperienced eye this fish is in its shape and 
size strikingly similar to the salmon, only more elegant in 
general contour ; the back is quite black, and the belly silvery. 
After it was hauled upon deck it threw up a great number of 
small fish, apparently the fry of its own species. 

A few days after, while we lay becalmed for some hours, I 
took the opportunity of killing several Kittiewakes, which 
were hovering over some object in the water, as well as pick- 
ing up any thing we flung over -board. They had been feeding 
upon the Bergelt, or Norway Haddock, of which 1 procured 
the remains. This beautiful red fish, Roed fisk, as the natives 
call it, (Sebastis Norvegicus of Yarrell) measures about afoot 
and a half in length, and exhibits all the hues of a gold-fish, 
while its general appearance so nearly resembles the Perch 



14 



JOURNAL OF A TOUR 



that Linnaeus called it Perca marina. The kittiewakes had 
mutilated the specimen considerably, but as the fish is by no 
means common I preserved the head. In Norway the Ber- 
gelt is considered a great delicacy, especially the flesh about 
the head ; it is only caught in very deep water, with long 
deep-sea lines, and consequently does not very often appear 
at table. 

On the 14th we met a vessel, and as soon as we discovered 
her to be British, we descended to the cabin, and opening 
our desks, wrote about our own well-being, and the marvels 
we had already seen and expected to see ; which, being 
hurriedly done, we sent our despatches on board the John 
of Greenock, wishing her a good voyage. We then proceed- 
ed, and on the same day passed Fugleoe, which island I did 
my best to sketch; but the evaporation in these high lati- 
tudes is so great that the vision is very much impeded when 
directed to distant objects at sea ; they have the appearance 
of being viewed through smoke on a frosty day. Upon the 
summit of this island the entire skeleton of a whale is said to 
exist ; but this account seems somewhat marvellous, as, to 
judge from the eye, the peak of Fugleoe must be about four or 
five hundred feet above the level of the sea, and covered with 
snow ; had our time allowed us we would have gone ashore 
to try and, find these relics. The etymology of Fugleoe is 
Bird or Fowl Island ; upon it, as well as upon the Loffodens, 
lay large patches of snow close to the water's edge, and un- 
melted even under the dissolving influence of the summer's 
heats. 

On the 15th we passed the town, or rather the village of 

Asvig or Hasvigf on the island of Soroe, whence a pilot came 



TO THE NORTHERN PARTS OF NORWAY. 



15 



off to us; and though, with Mr. Crowe on board, we could 
have dispensed with his services, still the law does not permit 
any one to refuse them when offered. This man informed us 
that three French gentlemen were on their way from Asvig 
to Hammerfest, and thence to proceed to the North Cape 
for scientific purposes, or, as he termed it, " breaking stones 
and killing birds." This news was agreeable to us, as we 
hoped the travellers in question would prove desirable com- 
panions. 

After passing Asvig a little way, we landed upon Soroe, Mr. 
Christy provided with his vascula, Mr. Walker with his 
insect-nets, and I with my gun. 

Much pleased I was, and I may add, somewhat surprised, 
with this my first ramble on Norwegian ground ; for though 
I was prepared for the absence of trees, of which there were 
none save stunted Birches, I did not expect to see such 
luxuriant vegetation of other kinds : the herbage through 
which I, as it were, waded, grew as high as my hips. I was 
first struck with the little Cornus Suecica flowering every- 
where in the greatest profusion, and also recognised several 
genera, such as Geranium, Viola, Pinguicula, Bartsia, Pedi- 
cularis and Allium; the Rubus Chamcemorus flowered in every 
direction, but I could find none of its refreshing ripe fruit. 
In the ornithological department I noticed Eider- Ducks, 
Oyster -catchers, Terns, Gulls, Sandpipers, two small species 
of Hawk and a Fishing Eagle, with plenty of Ravens; but all 
these birds seemed as wary as in England, if not more so, 
for I could not get within gunshot of any except the gulls 
and oyster-catchers. The snow lay within ten feet of high 
water mark, and that we might have it to say that we had 



16 



JOURNAL OF A TOUR 



played with snowballs on the dog-days, we presently laid aside 
all scientific pursuits, and began scratching- up the snow to 
pelt each other, like so many children let loose from school 
on a winter's day in England. Here we lost a beautiful blood- 
hound, belonging to Mr. Walker, which would not return to 
the boat, but setting off for the hills, was soon beyond all 
pursuit, so that we were reluctantly obliged to leave him be- 
hind, where, we doubted not, he would commit no small de- 
struction amongst the herds of tame Rein-deer. During my 
unsuccessful search after the dog I fell into one of the num- 
erous holes in the rocks, concealed from view by the snow 
and the Dwarf Birch (Betula nana) growing over it, and 
hurt my leg severely, besides receiving such a blow on the 
chest as caused me, on my return to the Harriet, to throw up 
a large quantity of blood, and left me very weak as well as 
lame. 

On the 16th of July we reached Hammerfest, and an- 
chored off Fugleness, the property of Mr. Crowe, and 
where his storehouses are situated. We waited till the 
Tolder — collector of taxes or toll, with several other gentle- 
men, came on board, dressed, of course, in the English fash- 
ion, each carrying a long pipe, with a capacious bowl, in his 
mouth. We went ashore and called upon Mr. Ackerman, 
one of the principal merchants at Hammerfest, after which I 
hobbled off to visit the French gentlemen, who had arrived 
before us, and had taken possession of the Inn. We found 
them at home, and spoke of accompanying them to the 
North Cape— a proposal which they appeared to receive with 
the same readiness with which we made it. One of these 
Naturalists showed us his sketches, which were beautiful and 



TO THE NORTHERN PARTS OE NORWAY. 



17 



highly finished ; another is an ornithologist, and he prepares 
his specimens with all that taste and neatness of hand for 
which the French are justly noted; while the third devotes 
his attention to geology and mineralogy. We parted, highly 
pleased with the prospect of having such companions in our 
intended expedition to the North Cape. 

The houses of Hammerfest are all built of wood, most of 
the timber coming from Mten, as there are no trees what- 
ever to be found in Qualoen (or Whale Island,) on which 
the town is situated. The foundations of the superior build- 
ings are of rough stones, generally plastered over ; the walls 
about six or eight inches thick, formed of the squared log, 
not of planking, between each log is inserted a layer of Sphag- 
num or bog-moss, which effectually excludes the cold ; very 
few nails are used, wooden pins being generally substituted. 
The roof is covered with birch bark, with shingles or turf laid 
above ; the birch bark is very durable, and quite impervious 
to moisture, besides having a pleasant smell. I only observ- 
ed one house that was tiled. Glass windows are in every 
dwelling ; but the glass, that comes from Russia, is of a very 
inferior quality. Along the shores of Hammerfest bay, as 
far as the town extends, stretches a wooden quay, on which 
the storehouses are erected, while upon its waters float many 
vessels belonging to different nations; the clumsy lodjies of 
the Russians — the classical Norwegian yawls, the objects of 
such terror to our British ancestors, and of which, I may add, 
pretty correct representations are still to be seen rudely carv- 
ed upon the tombstones of lona — French and German brigs 
— while, superior in grace and elegance to all, lay the 
Harriet, with her tapering masts and slender spars, calmly 

c 



18 



JOUNAL OF A TOUR 



reposing- upon the still bosom of the Arctic sea. When I 
considered that I was in the northernmost port and town 
in the world, I was surprised to find so many vessels. 
Higher up the bay are situated three or four houses for ex- 
tracting oil from the livers of fish, which is sold to the Russian 
and other vessels : this article, together with dried fish, forms 
the chief, indeed, I may say, the only export trade of Ham- 
merfest ; in return for which the people receive meal, flour, 
and other necessaries of life. These oil-houses are by far too 
close to the town, for they emit a dreadful stench of burnt oil, 
which is much at variance with the exquisitely neat and clean- 
ly appearance of the town itself ; indeed, the exterior of these 
buildings is neat and clean enough, but the effluvium that pro- 
ceeds from them is so revolting that 1 never could summon 
resolution enough to enter and see the process by which the 
oil is extracted, but as I hurried past and glanced in, I saw 
immense reeking vats full of oil, and the workmen moving 
about as unconcernedly as if they were distilling rose-water, 
instead of burning cods* 1 livers, in the town is a church, and 
at a little distance a grave-yard ; the former a primitive look- 
ing object and very old, as its exterior testifies, built of planks, 
and painted rusty black. The graves are tastefully kept, 
surrounded by wooden rails, neatly carved with the knife, 
and painted black and white, while the mounds are strewed 
with flowers of heather, &c, tied up in little bunches. After 
my stroll, which lasted till ten o'clock, I was glad to hobble 
home to Mr. Ackerman's, and seat myself at his supper-table. 

The interior of the Hamerfest houses agrees with their out- 
side in neatness and cleanliness ; the un carpeted floors of the 
rooms are strewed with juniper tops, and the walls covered 



TO THE NORTHERN PARTS OF NORWAY. 



19 



with painted canvass. In a recess of the German stove stands 
a box of goodly dimensions, replenished with tobacco, while 
the pipes hang upon the wall, every gentleman carrying his 
own pipe with him wherever he goes, and before sitting down, 
helping himself out of the tobacco box, as it would be con- 
sidered derogatory to the hospitality of the host if he took his 
own tobacco pouch. Then, lighting his pipe, he begins to 
chat. De Capell Brooke, whose Travels in Norway are well 
known, complains bitterly of the Norwegian habit of spitting 
on the floor, but in justice to the Harnmerfestian gentry, I 
must declare, that expectoration, even while smoking, is not 
common, and upon such occasions I always observed that boxes 
were used for the purpose, filled with jumper tops. Most as- 
suredly, I never saw a lady guilty of any thing of the kind, and 
am therefore bound to suppose that they have profited by 
De Capell Brooke's animadversions. Indeed, now that 1 am 
upon this subject, I may say that \ was much struck with 
the scrupulous attention that is paid to cleanliness by the 
natives of this country, in all respects very far exceeding that 
of most nations, and which might be copied, in many points, 
at home, to great advantage. When strangers visit a coun- 
try, they should rather endeavour to conform to the habits, 
manners, and customs of the people, than launch out into in- 
vectives against them. As to smoking, the practice is so uni- 
versal that none but a foreigner is ever annoyed by it, and 
I verily believe that a merchant of Haminerfest would sooner 
give up any comfort than his pipe. 

At Mr. Ackerman's dwelling, we sat down to a large and 
excellently prepared supper-table, the lady of the house tak- 
ing care of her guests, and supplying all their wants with 



20 



JOURNAL OF A TOUR 



that quickness and alacrity which nothing- but true hospitality 
could prompt. Among- other good things, were dried rein- 
deer meet, which was excellent ; ptarmigan, killed last Christ- 
mas, and preserved by the frost ; and, to conclude the repast, 
a kind of sour cream, called Filbunke ; it was thick, glutinous, 
and eaten with sugar, very palateable, and I doubt not very 
wholesome also, at least it agreed perfectly well both with 
my taste and my stomach. 

Sunday, 17th. — To-day we all went to church, but the 
service being conducted in Norske, I could not, of course, 
understand very much of it. The form of religion is Luth- 
eran, but I was surprised to observe upon the altar a carv- 
ing of the Crucifixion, and a Madonna, &c, with two huge 
gilded wax tapers ; the pulpit is made of curiously carved 
fir, of rough but masterly workmanship. 

Glancing round at the congregation, I was much struck 
with the similarity which it bore to country assemblages of 
the same kind in Scotland. The countenances of the Nor- 
wegian people, their dress, with their devout and orderly de- 
portment, reminded me very strongly of a Scottish country 
kirk. 

Our French friends came and dined on board with us to- 
day, and, since the Sabbath here, as in most continental 
nations, ends at six p. m., we took our guns and ascended the 
Tyvefield, or Thief Mountain. (I never could learn how or 
why it obtained this approbrious appellation, which probably 
had its origin from the same root as Tyburn.) This hill 
rises to an elevation of 1366 feet above the level of the sea, 
behind the town of Hammerfest, and from its summit the 
North Cape is visible. I found much fewer plants than on 



TO THK NORTHERN PARTS OF NORWAY. 



2 J 



Soroe, and of insects still fewer. I once caught what Mr. 
Walker thought to be Hipparchta blandina, but the speci- 
men was considerably injured. One species of insect is un- 
fortunately very common, and this is the Mosquito, the same 
genus as our gnat, Culex pipiens, but climate somehow 
alters his nature here, and with his long trunk he proved a 
sad annoyance, for more than once my eyes were fairly closed 
up with the punctures of this troublesome little creature. Be- 
hind one or two of the houses, I saw an attempt at a garden ; 
a bit of ground, about the size of an ordinary sitting-room, 
where a few Radishes, Turneps, Lettuces, and Parsley plants, 
struggled to elevate their starveling heads into the ungenial 
atmosphere. About a dozen stalks of immature Rye were 
also growing, and when I inquired what could be the use of 
such a small quantity of corn, I was informed that it would 
never ripen, but was only raised as a curiosity. 

Tuesday, 19th. — Yesterday and to-day the wind was ex- 
tremely high, and bitterly cold, coming from the north, and 
this, 1 was given to understand, was the prevailing weather at 
Qualoen during the summer season. However, I took my 
gun, and accompanied by one of our French friends, manag- 
ed to climb up some of the most elevated points in the neigh- 
bourhood, where I was much struck with the evidence that 
presented itself of pretty large trees having formerly existed 
upon Qualoen, where nothing now but a few stunted Birches 
can be seen. Dead stumps of considerable size of this kind 
of timber, still stand erect, some of them with branches bear- 
ing twigs even as small as my little finger, with the bark 
sufficiently recent to tell that the decayed trunks it encom- 
passes belong to the genus Betida or Birch, thus indicating 



22 



JOURNAL OF A TOUR 



a comparatively recent date of destruction. Upon being 
kicked, these semblances of life crumbled into dust. The 
air of Qualoen possesses a peculiarly drying and anti- 
putrescent quality, so that I doubt not but these trees, or 
rather these remains of trees, may have existed in this state 
for perhaps centuries, as it is not in the memory of man that 
living trees of such magnitude grew on the island ; but tradi- 
tion says that Qualoen was formerly covered with fir timber 
of great size. This sight gave rise to a train of speculations 
in my mind, none of them capable of very satisfactory solu- 
tion. There cannot be any analogy between this phenomenon 
and the remains of forests, as found in peat-bogs in Scotland, 
because the latter is occasioned by moisture, and the former 
is observable where there is no moisture to effect any such 
change. The Hammerfestians say it is owing to the increas- 
ed length and severity of their winters ; but, again, the ques- 
tion arises, to what are these alterations of the climate owing ? 
This island bears, as I thought, strong marks of volcanic 
formation ; here and there I observed those small, dark, and 
deep mountain -lakes, such as are called in Scotland Tarns, 
which look as if they had been craters, but are now filled 
with intensely cold water, while scattered round their edges, 
lie stones, apparently of volcanic origin. Whilst scramb- 
ling hither and thither, we came unexpectedly upon a herd of 
Rein-deer, who immediately upon seeing us, scampered off 
in beautiful style, tossing back their antlered heads, and 
bounding along as lightly as if they disdained to touch the 
earth. At a pretty late hour of the night we began our 
descent, having killed some golden plovers, and a species of 
snipe ; the air on the hills was desperately cold, and I was 



TO THE NORTHERN PARTS OF NORWAY. 



23 



glad that Monsieur bad more forethought than I possessed, 
for he took a rather capacious M'Intosh bag, replenished with 
capital Cognac, to which we made frequent applications during 
the day's ramble. 

Thursday, 21st.— After rising early, and taking some 
sketches of the neighbourhood of Hammerfest, 1 determined 
upon an excursion to Hojden, or the Greater Hielm, a rocky 
island, about five or six English miles from Qualoen, in order 
to shoot such sea-fowl as I might find there. The day was 
fine, and I proceeded in the Harriet's jolly-boat, accompani- 
ed by two sailors. After wandering about a good while, and 
finding birds rather scarce, we ensconced ourselves in a shel- 
tered nook, to eat our rye-bread, and drink brackish water, 
until the wind should either so change or subside as to allow 
of our return. Midnight arrived, and yet the Norske fishing 
boats were employed as busily at their vocations, if not more 
so, than by day. Finding stillness was by no means con- 
ducive to our comfort in so cold a situation, we went birds"- 
nesting among the stupendous cliffs, and captured several 
young herring-gulls, two of which we brought alive to Swan- 
sea. I obtained too a considerable quantity of the Angelica, 
the stems of which are eagerly gathered and eaten by the 
Norwegians and Laplanders. I also procured plenty of 
LitJiospermum maritimum, in flower. It was six o'clock in 
the morning before the wind permitted us to leave the Hieim. 

Friday, 22nd. — On my arrival at the Harriet this morning, 
I found that several things had been arranged during my 
absence. First, that the expedition to the North Cape, on 
which I had set my heart, should be abandoned, the weather 
being now very unsuitable and threatening to continue so, 



24 



JOURNAL OF A TOUR 



thus rendering" the passage in an open boat both uncomfort- 
able and perilous ; besides, it was likely to be protracted so 
long*, that the captain expressed his fears, lest, on our return 
to Alten, we might find the Harriet already gone. As I 
had no option but to return to England by this vessel, I dared 
not run such a risk. Thus, we most reluctantly allowed our 
French friends to depart for the North Cape without us, and 
this, they, being masters of their own time, did the very next 
morning at an early hour. Secondly, I found that the giving 
an entertainment to the Hammerfestians, an affair that had 
been only spoken of as a joke, was now fully determined upon, 
the decisive step of inviting several individuals having been 
already taken. 

After breakfast, we went on shore to inspect our ball-room, 
the late abode of our French friends. The apartment was 
large and neat, while its elastic flooring made it a capital 
room for the purpose. We therefore engaged the Hammer- 
fest Assembly Rooms, and Madame Bang, the landlady, a 
most notable woman, promised to have every thing prepared 
in a style superior to all that Hammerfest had ever witnessed. 
I left my companions to make the needful arrangements, and 
went with my portfolio up the bay, as far as the mouth of a 
small stream, where I sat and sketched the town, with the 
opposite peninsula of Fugleness; but hardly had I half finish- 
ed my drawing, which I was anxious to make as accurate 
as possible, when the rains descended, and the winds blew, 
and drove me from my seat. 

While i had been sketching, I noticed several filthy, half- 
clad Russian sailors, cutting birch twigs, and then saw them 
strip themselves quite naked before a dirty looking hut, from 



TO THE NORTHERN PARTS OF NORWAY. 25 

the crevices in the roof of which, for there were no windows, 
steam and smoke were continually issuing. As often as one 
of these unfledged animals entered, there poured forth, from 
the open door, such volumes of steam and vapour, as greatly 
excited my curiosity to know what might be going on within. 
I also saw several women walking in and out, apparently to 
cool themselves, and drinking large quantities of the coldest 
water, while in a state of the most profuse perspiration. So, 
conjecturing that this must be one of the vapour-baths, of 
which I had often read, I went up, and, opening the door to 
press in, was driven back by the sudden inhaling of hot steam; 
but again I plucked up courage, and holding my breath, I 
thrust in my head, and dimly descried, upon a kind of a shelf 
or loft, raised several feet from the floor, a number of disgust- 
ingly dirty, long-bearded Russians, either flogging themselves, 
or being flogged by women, with the birch twigs which 
they had been cutting. Others were washing their bodies in 
tubs of water ; but my vision was so much impeded by steam, 
that I could see nothing farther, but withdrew, coughing 
violently, and my eyes streaming with water. I then went 
back to the Harriet to dress for the ball, and was told that 
every respectable person in Hammerfest had been asked, and 
that not an individual had refused the invitation ; so that we 
might expect a full room. The hour fixed for meeting was 
half-past six : we, of course, as the Giest-givers, had to be 
there first, and were shown into an apartment below the 
saloon, where various eatables were set out. The gentlemen, 
shortly after, dropped into this room, where we waited to re- 
ceive them, while the ladies were served with coffee, &c, up 
stairs. It was curious to notice the affection of the former for 

D 



26 



JOURNAL OF A TOUft 



smoking- ; each brought his ovrn pipe, which he only laid 
down when in the saloon, and ever and anon retired for a 
short time to enjoy an invigorating- whiff. This puts me in 
mind of a complaint of Dr. Clarke, who says, that a clean 
pipe is never offered to a stranger ; and he animadverts, in 
pretty severe terms, upon the filthiness of the opposite custom. 
Now it must be remembered that a clay pipe is an unknown 
article here, and that the practice of carrying one's own pipe 
is so universal, that no one is ever seen without it. As far as 
I have observed, however, cigars are offered to those strangers 
who do not possess a pipe. For my own part, I adopted the 
custom there, and wherever I went, my pipe and tobacco- 
pouch always accompanied me ; the former was seldom out 
of my mouth, and the latter dangled at my button-hole. 
Each of our visitors sat down and ate a hearty meal, and as 
soon as he had finished, rose up to make way for others, 
while we were assiduously engaged in helping them to corn- 
brandy, cognac, rum, or wine, drinking and touching our 
glasses with them. The former liquor is, to me at least, as 
well as to most English tastes, very unpalateable ; fiery and 
strong, though destitute of flavour : to remedy which defect, 
it is common to add, artificially, the aroma of distilled Cara- 
way-seeds. I brought some corn-brandy of both kinds home 
with me, the very best I could procure, but all my friends 
have agreed with me in condemning it. Whether flavoured 
or plain, it turned milky white upon the addition of a few drops 
of warm water, indicating the presence of some volatile oil, 
which can even be detected by the eye, floating upon the top. 
Though some of the gentlemen went into the ball-room before 
us, still no dancing was attempted till the Giest-givers should 
come. 



TO THE NORTHERN PARTS OF NORWAY, 



27 



On entering" the saloon, we found the ladies ranged upon 
seats against the wall ; — I may correctly say ranged, for the 
matrons all sat together, then the unmarried damsels, then 
the younger girls, and lastly, those females whose rank did 
not amount to aristocracy. One corner of the room was 
filled by a raised platform, and surrounded by a railing, 
which served as an orchestra for the performers on the violin, 
who, as in other countries, were busily engaged prior to our 
entrance, in scraping, tuning', and rosining their cremonas ; 
but as soon as the Giest-givers were seen, we were honoured 
with a burst of music, quite a flourish of catgut, and present- 
ly the whole company were figuring away in a contre-danse. 
It must, however, be remarked, that some degree of etiquette 
is necessary in the opening of the ball. The Giest-giver on 
whom this duty devolves, is guilty of an alarming breach of 
decorum, if he does not select first the lady of the highest 
quality in the room. Thus, a lady entitled to the rank of 
Frauj or the wife of some official person, takes the precedence 
of all the rest, and all the Fraus must be handed out, before 
a Madame is asked to dance. To these punctilios, under the 
instructions of Mr. J. Crowe, we paid attention. Waltzes 
succeeded the first contre-danse, and here the ladies showed 
great grace and agility. I was somewhat surprised when after 
the first dance, glasses of punch, spiced wine and beer, were 
handed round, to which we were expected to help our part- 
ners, and pledge them. Of course, the ladies took only wine 
and beer, while the gentlemen usually drank punch, which is 
certainly extremely good, the Hammerfest people being famed 
for its composition ; the spiced wine was also very nice, and, 
I dare say, an excellent stomachic : but of the beer, I must aver 



28 



JOURNAL OF A TOUR 



that it was disagreeable beyond all description, at least to an 
English taste. Upon a small table were placed liqueurs, sweet- 
meats, dried fruits, &c. During the intervals of dancing, the 
gentlemen kept walking in and out from the saloon, to the 
smoking, eating, and card-rooms, where they whiffed their 
pipes, drank punch, sang, ate sweet-meats, chatted and played 
at Boston or Whist for very low stakes. 

Two Quadrilles were attempted, chiefly in compliment to 
the Giest-givers, whose performance was by no means such 
as to raise their character as dancers in the eyes of the Ham- 
merfestian Waltzers. One or two Norske dances followed, 
through which we contrived to stumble, after many good- 
natured hints from our partners, and many stupid blunders 
of our own. At midnight, supper was brought in ; — this con- 
sisted of Bear and Rein-deer ham, Sandwiches, with raw 
smoked Salmon, and the usual accompaniments of punch, 
liqueurs, wine, &c. Dancing, and especially waltzing, was 
again resumed with such vigour, that 1 soon hardly knew 
whether it was upon my head or heels that I stood, or rather 
staggered. At five o'clock coffee was introduced : at about 
six, the ladies began to withdraw, and in half an hour more 
the final separation took place ; the fun was thus kept up for 
a whole dozen of hours. No one seemed in the slightest de- 
gree tired, except ourselves, and, indeed, one of the Giest- 
givers was so fatigued, that he had to retire and take a nap 
upon a hard wooden bench. On departing each individual 
shook hands with us, and thanked us for the pleasure we had 
conferred. 

Saturday, 23rd.. — This morning, having risen somewhat 
late, it must be owned, I proceeded to my yesterday's locality 



TO THE NORTHERN PARTS OF NORWAY. 



29 



to finish the view of Hammerfest, (see Plate 1.) after which 
I strolled a little way up the stream, at the mouth of which I 
had been sitting, and readied a small . lake of bitterly cold 
water, so cold, that when, being thirsty, I stooped to drink, 
all my teeth ached with the icy feeling it communicated to 
them. On the banks I observed a Lapp tent, formed of skins, 
twisted round a frame-work of poles. No person was within 
nor did it contain any furniture, except two or three birch- 
wood bowls, some skins, &c. The fire-place was simply a 
raised hearth, formed of one or two large flat stones, in the 
middle of the tent, above which was an opening, serving for a 
chimney. 

I had been much amused with a most original-looking en- 
graving of the town of Hammerfest, which was suspended in 
the house of more than one merchant, where the accurate 
artist had represented a gig driving round the bay at full 
speed, in a place where it was quite difficult enough for a 
pedestrian to scramble along without breaking his legs ! 
Moreover, I never saw a road, much less a wheeled vehicle 
of any description, in all Qualoen, and only two horses, and 
these were kept to be eaten. 

While walking in the town with Mr. Walker to-day I was 
much perplexed : for on passing a store-house out rushed the 
merchants son, all covered with flour, who followed us, bawl- 
ing out, " tak, tak, mony tak." My companion and I look- 
ed round, and deeming there must be some mistake, continu- 
ed our way at a brisk pace. Our friend still pursued, and I, 
hearing the call renewed, turned^ about, thinking that some- 
thing might have dropped from my portfolio, and it was not 
till, thanks to these delays, the individual had come up to us, 



30 



JOURNAL OF A TOUR 



that we recognised, in his floury habiliments, one of our 
guests of the preceding- evening, who was anxious to return 
us his thanks for the entertainment we had given him. We 
were, in a similar way, pounced upon by several others, who 
not having had, the previous night, what they considered a 
sufficient opportunity of expressing their acknowledgements, 
now came forward to discharge that debt. The rest of this 
day was occupied in taking leave of our Hammerfest acquain- 
tances, and in hunting through the stores to make some little 
purchases. Among other things I bought a Reindeer-skin 
Paesk, which I was told would prove very useful ; it is made 
of the skin of the Reindeer fawn, or Reincalf as it is called, 
very soft and warm ; its shape I cannot more aptly compare 
than to a sack with a hole in its bottom, and having sleeves 
sewed on. The threads used for attaching the skins toge- 
ther are composed of the tendons of that useful animal ; this 
substance being almost always used by the Laplanders for 
sewing leather, fur, &c, but not for cloth, if they can get any 
thing else : it is very strong and will cut the fingers before 
it breaks. De Capell Brooke states that the hair falls off the 
skin of the Reindeer, after being wetted with salt water, un- 
less immediately rubbed with snow ; but the one which I now 
purchased had been for some days under water, in a vessel 
which sank at sea, and is yet as good as new ; while another 
which I possess has been repeatedly drenched with salt-water, 
and though I never even took the pains to wash it afterwards, 
there does not appear to be a hair lost in consequence. 

We now started for Kaafiord, (pronounced Kofiord,) in the 
Harriet, Mr. Aasberg accompanying us as a passenger. 

I certainly felt some regret at leaving Hammerfest, where 



TO THE NORTHERN PARTS OF NORWAY. 



31 



so inuch kindness and attention had been shewn ns, and 
where we had met with snch a flattering- reception. Its in- 
habitants possess all the courtesy and polish of the French., 
without the fulsome complimentary style so general with that 
nation ; and I do aver that the ease and grace of a Hammer- 
festian bow, are worthy of imitation by the most refined dandy 
in Bond Street. I never experienced the inconvenience said 
to be so prevalently inflicted upon strangers throughout the 
Northern nations — and of which my father had full experi- 
ence in Iceland — that of being pressed to eat more than one 
would wish ; this is still too much the case in more southern 
parts, but here no one takes any more than his appetite in- 
clines him, and all rise from the table at the same time, and 
going up to the lady of the house say, shaking hands with her, 
" inony tak for mad," or " many thanks for the meal ; v to 
which she replies " welbekemmen/ , " you are welcome." 

As we passed out of the harbour we gave the good town 
of Hanimerfest a parting salute, the grandest we could mus- 
ter, being the discharge of eleven fowling-pieces, rifles, &c, 
to which a beautiful echo responded from the hills. 

On our passage to Kaafiord, the extreme scarcity of water- 
fowl surprised me. Upon the open sea there had been a 
much greater number, but here no birds could I see at all 
except a flock of Gulls and Terns, chasing the fry of the 
Coalfish. As we drew near the mainland the scenery be- 
came very fine. Rocks dipping boldly and abruptly into the 
placid bosom of the deep, clothed to their summits with the 
sombre foliage of the Scottish Fir, beyond which were seen 
the glittering Glaciers, finely contrasted with the dark, yet 
bright blue sky, and the gloomy forests ; added to all this, 



32 



JOURNAL OF A TOUR 



the declining sun cast his rays on the dazzling surface of the 
icy masses, rendering them almost too brilliant for the eye to 

bear. 

Sunday, 24th. — This morning, on rising, we found that ow- 
ing to the wind being very light hardly any progress had 
been made, and the same weather continued all day. How- 
ever about seven or eight o'clock, p. M., we passed the copper 
mines of Kaafiord, which, with their accompaniments of 
smelting-house, stamping-machine, &c. &c, were all pointed 
out to us by Mr. Crowe. The English residents soon after 
boarded us, and welcomed us heartily to Kaafiord, while, 
with the greatest kindness, Mr. Crowe insisted upon our mak- 
ing his house our head-quarters and home, in every respect, 
during our stay. 

The rich views wMch here greeted us, differed strikingly 
from the barren scenes which we had left behind us at Qua- 
loen. On that side of the Fiord which is opposite the mines 
extends a long range of bare, rugged, and precipitous rocks, 
while above the works the hills are finely wooded with Birch 
and Fir. Looking towards the head of the Fiord, deep slop- 
ing vallies, and blue distant mountains capped with snow, 
formed an exquisite and pleasing variety, while, through the 
dark colouring of the foliage, a waterfall was glittering ; close 
to the shore, at the mouth of a stream, stood a row of miners'' 
houses, their forms strongly reflected on the calm unruffled 
surface of the water ; while the foreground was filled by numer- 
ous long canoe-like boats, with white sails. The whole 
formed a splendid subject for the artist. 

The Harriet moored at the store-wharf, whence we pro- 
ceeding to Consul Crowe's house, where we found several 



TO THE NORTHERN PARTS OF NORWAY. 33 

Norske ladies, and the Bergmaster of Alten, who was on an 
official visit to the mines. After sitting- down to a plentiful 
supper, we retired to our comfortable clean beds, very differ- 
ent from our cramped berths on board the Harriet, 

Monday, 25th After breakfast, we went, accompanied 

by Mr. Gait, who is an excellent Norwegian scholar, and 
who kindly undertook to be our cicerone and interpreter, to 
visit the copper-mines, which are situated about half- way up 
a hill facing the fiord. I had expected to find them similar 
to quarries, as is the case in the great Fahlun copper- mines ; 
instead of which, they are levels, driven horizontally into the 
face of the hill, some of them extending a considerable dis- 
tance underground, branching off in various directions, and 
in some instances communicating with each other. The 
workmen are chiefly Quans, with a few*Norwegians. These 
two races of people are so perfectly distinct, as not to be 
easily confounded with one another. The former are a dull 
heavy-looking tribe, broad-shouldered, their faces flat and 
square, with high cheek-bones and sallow complexions ; they 
came originally from the Gulf of Tornea, but have, for a con- 
siderable time, been settled in Fin mark, for agricultural and 
other purposes : they are industrious, tolerably steady, and 
generally make good workmen. The Norwegians, on the 
other hand, who are the original denizens and proprietors of 
the soil, are tall, well-built, compactly formed and sinewy, 
with fair complexions, longish faces and sharp features : they 
are more talented than the Quans, and look down upon their 
more mercenary neighbours as interlopers and intruders on 
their territories. What the Quans, however, want in intel- 
lect, they make up by superior industry, steadiness, and per- 

E 



JOURNAL OF A TOUR 



severance ; for the Norwegian peasant, more especially the 
miner, is sadly addicted to drunkenness, making it almost a 
point to get intoxicated every Saturday, which here, as un- 
fortunately in England, is the pay-day. 

Women also work in the mines, not in the actual detach- 
ing and blasting of the ore ; but chiefly in breaking it into 
smaller fragments, and picking it, or in clearing the mines, 
&c. Those whom I saw thus employed, were, with but few 
exceptions, very ugly and dirty beings, perched upon heaps 
of copper-ore at the mouths of the mines, busily employed 
breaking the larger lumps, rejecting the poorer pieces, and 
casting together those which were to go to the crushing-mill. 
The ore thus sorted, is then placed in carriages and pushed 
along railways till it reaches one of the Shoots : these are 
large wooden tubes, ^ome of them forty or fifty feet long, 
while others measure as much as two hundred feet : down 
these it is shot out of these carriages, till it reaches the Floors, 
where it undergoes another picking and sorting, and is thence 
conveyed to the Crushing-Mill, which grinds it into fragments, 
varying in size from that of a split pea to a horse-bean, and 
in this state, after puddling or washing, it is considered fit 
for exportation. The process of smelting is, however, in 
course of being tried at Kaafiord, and there are hopes that it 
will eventually succeed. 

The mountain in which the copper-mines are situated, is 
chiefly composed of Greenstone Rock, mixed witli some 
quartz and calcareous limestone, especially where the veins 
of copper run. An immense quantity of copper is dispersed 
in the state of pyrites, and almost free from iron. New 
lodes of this are continually found,* and were this metal but 



TO THE NORTHERN PARTS OF NORWAY. 



40 



• concentrated into a few spots, the property would be quite 
invaluable. The poorest ores yield about ten per cent, of 
copper, and the highest average seventeen, though 1 saw 
some large masses, as big as a man's body, of pure pyrites, 
containing fifty per cent, of copper. This ore is very gener- 
ally disseminated in great abundance, not occurring in scat- 
tered portions, which would subject the miner to some risk 
as to his profit, and uncertainty in his operations, but in rich 
bunches. The facilities for working the mines are consider- 
able, plenty of wood and water being close at hand. Nor is 
there occasion to use steam in any operation, manual labour 
being cheap, and the workmen tractable, steady, and indust- 
rious. To crown all these advantages, vessels lie, I may al- 
most say, alongside the mines 1 mouths : for the intervening 
distance being a few yards only, the ore is trundled into the 
ship upon inclined planks. At Swansea, and other places, 
this metal meets with a ready sale, at a very fair remunerat- 
ing price. An idea of this may be formed by those who 
know something of the business, when J mention that in the 
year (1 think) J 833, 7Q0 tons of copper ore were raised and 
sold, and the profit on them amounted to very nearly £2000. 
Now, in consequence of more speedy and economical plans 
having been adopted for obtaining the ore, the profits, as well 
as the quantities sold, are much greater. 

At the Ripas mountains, we understand the Mining Com 
pany have still richer mines, which we hope shortly to visit. 

In the Alten copper a portion of silver is found, but a 
curious discrepancy exists with regard to the experimental 
results made by Captain Thomas, the scientific chemist of 
the Company at Kaafiord, and by chemists in England. The 



36 



JOURNAL OF A TOUR 



former is unable to detect above a third of the quantity as- 
serted to have been found by the latter, though they made 
use of the selfsame specimens, and Captain T. tested them by 
the most delicate and oft-repeated experiments. The ad- 
mixture of quartz and calcareous spar in the copper proves 
a great advantage, for as these substances are the very fluxes 
used for smelting the metal, it saves the trouble and addition- 
al expense of adding them for this purpose, when the ore is in 
the furnace. 

The first object that attracted my attention when passing 
through patches of wood in our way to the mines, was the 
beautiful Linncea borealis, growing in the greatest profusion, 
and perfuming the air all around with its delicately scented 
blossoms; it was not, however, till we had advanced some 
way, that we comprehended whence the rich odour that per- 
vaded the vallies proceeded. 

As soon as we saw this far-famed plant, we plucked large 
handfulls of it, sticking the flowers in the bands of our hats 
and button -holes, in emulation of its first discoverer, the im- 
mortal Linnaeus. Mr. Walker busied himself with his insect- 
nets, while we all the while kept humanely wishing, with re- 
gard to the Mosquitoes, as Caligula did in reference to the 
Roman people, " that they had but one neck," and that Mr. 
Walker would sever that one ! I noticed several crows mak- 
ing a most dismal croaking over the whitened bones of a 
Norske dog, of whose skull I took possession, but no other 
birds could be seen, except abundance of mischievous mag- 
pies. These birds exist here in great numbers, and the 
people regard them with a sort of superstitious reverence, 
which, as in Scotland, prevents their being destroyed, so that 



TO THE NORTHERN PARTS OF 



NORWAY. 



37 



they are particularly pert and familiar. J have counted upon 
one small birch tree, close to my bed-room window in Consul 
Crowe's house, no fewer than nineteen mag-pies, whose in- 
cessant chattering- woke me in the morning-. They seemed 
to be holding some high meeting of senate, where there was 
no Speaker to call to order, or rather, in which they were all 
speakers and no hearers. 

Tuesday, 26th. — Mr. Crowe having settled his home affairs, 
set off with the Bergmaster to visit the interior of the mines, 
and see the progress that had been made during his absence ; 
and I feeling glad to avail myself of such an opportunity of 
inspecting them, put on my dirtiest habiliments, and, ham- 
mer in hand, accompanied these gentlemen along the same 
route that I had gone the day before. I ought to have men- 
tioned that the mines are situated about a mile and a half 
distant from Mr. Crowe's house, and that a water-course is 
conducted from a stream near his dwelling, which extends 
for a length of almost two miles, to the crushing-mill. 
Wherever the ground sinks, this water-course is raised upon 
props, and where the ground rises, a channel is cut to receive 
it. The day before we arrived at Kaafiord, one or two of 
these props gave way, owing to an unusually large body of 
water coming down, combined with the decayed state of the 
wood-work; in consequence of this, a portion of the water- 
course fell with a tremendous crash, making a gap nearly a 
mile long, and, of course, stopping the machinery of the 
crushing-mill till the damage was repaired. Before entering 
the mines, lights were handed to each individual, and it was 
with some surprise, that I saw excellent mould candles used 
by every miner at his work, as good as the best Kensingtons 



38 



JOUNAL OF A TOUR 



that are burnt on a gentleman's table at home ; but this sur- 
prise was removed when I was told that they came from 
Russia, at a very cheap rate. As we entered these wet, 
dripping and dirty burrows, the instantaneous change of 
temperature quite startled me, our breath being at once con- 
densed into a thick vapour. At the mouth of one of the 
mines lay a large quantity of ice, which had been taken from 
the interior, where it was continually forming. I found these 
underground works extending for a considerable distance, so 
that if a person had not a very intimate knowledge of the in- 
tricacies, he would inevitably lose himself in this labyrinth. 
As we proceeded, the hollow sound of blasting echoed along 
the caverns; and once, so great was the thundering concus- 
sion of the air, that several of our candles were puffed out, 
and I felt as if struck by some invisible and shapeless body, 
with sucli force as partially to take away respiration. Large 
drops of water, that had either condensed upon the roof 
above, or percolated through the superincumbent soil, fell 
upon us as we passed, and rendered the floor all sloppy and 
muddy. 

It is seldom that casualties happen in these mines, except 
from the accidental explosion of the blast-holes when they are 
filling with powder, and then it is sometimes attended with 
dreadful consequences. The carelessness of the workmen is 
reprehensible in the extreme; an instance of this was told me, 
which, at the same time, showed their extraordinary presence 
of mind. While some miners were filling a hole with pow- 
der, others amused themselves close by in kindling some 
tubes containing the same material, and this they did above a 
large box full of them. As might be expected, a few sparks 



TO THE NORTHERN PARTS OF NORWAY. 



39 



fell into this box, and set off all the rest, exploding like so 
many squibs. The individuals employed in "tamping" the 
hole, on perceiving this, immediately seated themselves above 
it, thus employing the only chance that remained of saving 
themselves and their careless companions from destruction. 
Another similar case of recklessness was mentioned to me. 
Near the works is a powder-house, or magazine, built, 
as usual, of wood. One of the Englishmen was passing 
it lately, and actually saw a number of natives, who, having 
marked the wall of the building, were about to fire at it with 
their rifles ! 

The roofs of all the mines, except one, appear to be firm, 
and, as far as I could learn, there is no danger from gas of 
any kind. 

I picked up a few specimens of carbonate of lime, in 
crystals, encrusted with iron and copper in beautiful spiculse; 
this I found occurring in cavities, some of them as large as 
my head ; but it surprised me not a little to observe some of 
these specimens, from the size of a hen's egg to that of my 
fist, lying loose in these cavities, without any trace of attach- 
ment either on the sides or on the crystals, though I examined 
them most minutely. I also noticed single crystals, about an 
inch in length, lying loose in a similar manner ; «uch as these 
were most beautifully perfect in their formation, and symme- 
trical in their shape: bitter Spar was likewise found, and 
beautiful specimens of arseniate of Cobalt; while spicular 
Iron, iridescent Copper, the blue and green Oxyde, or 
Malachite, are common. I was also shown a vein of very 
small coarse Amethysts : great quantities of Asbestos, and 
some Epidote occur; the former is in such large masses, 



40 JOURNAL OF A TOUR 

especially in a lode of Copper ore, (opened a day or two be- 
fore I went away, and likely to prove very rich) that Mr. 
Crowe intends making the bottom of a furnace of this sub- 
stance. The bottoms of the present smelting furnaces stand 
the necessary heat very ill, and this plan of lining them with 
Asbestos appeared likely to answer. 

Wednesday, 27th. — I rose betimes, and taking my sketch- 
book, delineated, as well as I could, the falls in a river 
emptying itself into Kaafiord bay, not far from the works. 
They were very fine, and reminded me much of those upon 
the river Lochy near Killin. The water descended in a triple 
fall, the uppermost being far the grandest, sending forth a 
great deal of spray, by which I should have been presently- 
wetted quite through, if I had not hastened to withdraw from 
under its influence. A ledge of rock near this spot had been 
for many years selected by a pair of fishing Eagles as their 
Eyrie, where they had brought forth their young in safety, 
regardless of the loud echoes of blasting on the opposite side ; 
and this was so far fortunate for the birds, as I went to the 
place with malice prepense; and had the young or eggs been 
there, could easily with the help of a ladder or rope, have suc- 
ceeded in obtaining them, and probably have shot the intrepid 
parents also, whom 1 frequently saw afterwards, hovering near 
the spot, on the look-out for fish. 

At these falls, a number of salmon nets, called stangles, are 
set at the mouth of the river; these are formed by a barrier 
being thrown across the stream, in which are interstices, in 
each of which is placed a net, with its opening kept donm the 
stream, and constructed on the principle of a wire cage mouse- 
trap. The salmon, of course, hasten to the interstices, unsus- 



TO THE NORTHERN PARTS OF NORWAY, 



41 



pecting the danger beyond, and passing through the narrow 
and gradually contracting hole, find themselves "caught 
in an evil net," where progress and return are alike im- 
possible. When the fisher comes, he lifts the frame-work, 
net and all, and having taken out the fish, replaces the snare. 
This contrivance, if properly constructed and set, is calculated 
to entrap every fish in the river in their passage upwards: yet 
as I have myself seen large salmon caught above the stangles; 
I conjecture that a temporary or partial removal must take 
place, with the design of allowing some to escape. A curious 
fact was mentioned to me, that char and trout are seldom or 
never captured in these nets, though both abound and attain 
a considerable size. 1 may here observe that the mode 
adopted by the Indians of North-West America, for catching 
salmon in the Columbia river, as described by the late Mr. 
David Douglas, is almost precisely the same as in the Kaafiord 
river — (See Memoir of Mr. Douglas, published in the Com* 
panion to the Botanical Magazine.) 

On entering the woods^ I noticed the Linncea borealis, 
called by the Norwegians Windgras, and growing in even 
greater profusion than I have ever observed it before or since, 
in the fullest flower and delicious fragrance ; but the mosquitoes 
severely punished all those who invaded their territories, 
adhering so pertinaciously to our clothes, that it was quite 
impossible to keep them off. Smoking certainly prevented 
these blood-suckers from attacking my face, but they con- 
trived to puncture through trowsers and drawers, and, laugh- 
able as the fact may appear, it is no less true, that I have 
seen these little creatures, when they came to try a tougher 
part of the cuticle of my hand, prop their slender and flexible 

F 



42 



JOURNAL OF A TOUR 



trunks, by pressing a fore-leg on each side, just in the same 
way and upon the same principle that a carpenter grasps a 
nail betwixt his fore-finger and thumb to prevent its bending. 
When permitted to suck their fill, which generally requires 
about a minute and a half, the mosquitoes will gorge them- 
selves to such a degree, as to be frequently unable to move, 
and, turning on their backs, remain so till they die. The 
mosquito veils, so frequently recommended, I find to be 
worse than useless, at least in my case, as prohibiting me 
from either making use of the gun, or sketching, or looking 
about; such a veil must also be kept entirely clear of the 
face, or these insects puncture through it in a moment; and 
I was t by no means inclined to try the other remedy, of 
smearing my countenance with tar ointment. The fondness 
of mosquitoes for blood, in some countries, is a highly curious 
fact in their natural history. In England, though we have 
plenty of the identical species, Culex pipiens, or the common 
gnat, we are not bitten, or at least very rarely.* Blood 
cannot, I think, be their natural food, these creatures being 
found, in the greatest abundance, where no animal exists 
which can thus supply them. Besides, as I before mentioned, 
they frequently, if not always, die, when permitted to suck 
their filL 

In returning home, I noticed a large number of fish-heads 
hung up before some of the houses ; upon enquiring the pur- 
pose to which so great a quantity could be applied, I learned 

* A similar immunity is to be obser% r ed in England, with respect to 
sharks. It is a well known fact that they do exist on our own shores, (see 
Yarrell's British Fishes) but they do not seem to be endowed with the taste 
for human flesh that they have in other latitudes. 



TO THE NORTHERN PARTS OF NORWAY. 



43 



that the following extraordinary use is made of them, which 
though I at first supposed to be a joke, I afterwards found 
was perfectly true. These fish-heads are collected against 
winter, when they are employed as food for the cows, and, if I 
remember rightly, for sheep also ; they are boiled to the con- 
sistency of thick soup, and as much horse-dung as can be 
obtained, is added to this mess, of a which the cattle are 
remarkably fond, and, provided they get a sufficient quantity, 
they thrive well upon it. The poor people, as Mr. Crowe 
informed me, are so eager to obtain the latter precious ingre- 
dient, that they crowd round the mining company's stables, 
run after the horses, and almost catch the droppings before 
they reach the ground. The managers have been offered a 
high price to contract for the stable-cleanings. This is the 
less to be wondered at, when it is considered how large a 
portion of aliment passes almost unaltered, through the 
stomach of a horse. 

" A nauseous dole 
Of voided pulse or half digested grain." 

Cows, even in England, are fond of stable-litter : and in 
these parts of Norway, where hay is very scarce, this is a 
most economical plan. Indeed, without it, the cattle could 
not be kept through the winter. 

Thursday, 28th.— After making a long excursion this day 
in pursuit of birds, I returned home with very little success. 
1 saw a good many flocks of our winter friends, the Fieldfares, 
with their young, but could obtain no eggs, the young birds 
were so tame that I captured several with my hands, but the 
old ones were quite as shy as they are in England, if not 
more so. 



44 



JOURNAL OF A TOUR 



Friday, 29th. — Accompanied by Captain Thomas, who has 
the charge of all the mines, as well as bearing the office of 
chemical assayer to the Company, I went up the country to- 
day to shoot and look about. Off we set, determined to face 
the mosquitoes to the last drop, and passing the falls, pro- 
ceeded up the river, through a beautifully wooded district, 
interspersed with marshy ground, where the Ruhus Cham- 
wmonis grew in great plenty, bearing abundance of delicious 
amber-coloured berries. The Norwegian name for this fruit 
is Moltebaer, or Manyberry, in allusion to its clustered appear- 
ance. We saw numberless dead Firs, some erect, extending 
their scattered and barkless branches above the living trees, 
or lying scattered on the ground, while others were half sunk 
in the bog, and overgrown with moss and rushes. The diff- 
erent species of Pyrola just reared their pretty delicate 
flowers above the herbage. The Crowberry, Krakebaer, grew 
in the utmost profusion, bearing extraordinarily large and 
grateful fruit. A quantity of timber was felled, and ready 
for floating down to the falls, either to build houses at Alten 
with it, or to be sent to Hammerfest. We continued our 
ascent of the river till we came to Matthiesen's Lake, where 
my hopes of seeing many and scarce waterfowl were griev- 
ously disappointed. We crossed the Lake in a little canoe, 
like boat, in the bottom of which we were obliged to sit, for 
fear of capsizing it, as 1 thought that our dog, who was con- 
tinually on the qui vive, would have done. On the opposite 
side we landed at a marshy spot, where there were plenty of 
wild ducks. The old birds were in general too cunning to 
let us come within gun-shot, but we soon killed a great many 
Flappers of the Golden-eye, Teal, and common Wild-duck, 



TO THE NORTHERN PARTS OF NORWAY. 45 

as well as a young Merganser, so that as far as mere sport 
was concerned, our time was not lost. We were dreadfully 
tormented with our customary plagues, the mosquitoes, which 
are peculiarly active on these marshy spots. 

On one occasion when we had concealed ourselves among 
some low willows, growing in about two feet depth of water, 
in order to obtain some old ducks, our faces were soon cover- 
ed with hard swollen lumps, and became so sore, red, and 
stiff, that we could scarely get our eyes open. While I was 
in this state, I saw, — certainly what I never expected to meet 
with during the summer season, — a covey of Norwegian 
Ptarmigan, called by the natives Ripa. Eager to pursue 
them, yet half blinded, I darted off, calling to Captain 
Thomas, " the Ripa, the Ripa," and presently plunged into 
a deep hole of mud and water, whence I was unable to ex- 
tricate myself till my companion came and assisted in pulling 
me out. We then both went to work more calmly, beating 
every bush and cover, but without success, as these birds, 
after being once disturbed, always sit very close and can 
hardly be put up without the aid of a very expert and active 
dog. I was quite struck here with the beauty of the Pedi- 
cular is Sceptrnm Caroli, called by the people, Karl's skefler, 
it grew certainly not less than three feet high, the upper part 
for two thirds of the length of the plant, being covered with the 
spike of golden-coloured flowers, which rendered it a most 
brilliant and truly sceptre-object, • as it reared its lofty head 
above the surrounding long grass. 

On our way home I shot an Owl — Strix Lapponica,—t\ie 
Kafyogle, or Cat Owl, of the Norwegians, — a bird that pecu- 
liarly merits its name, so noiseless, so soft, so hypocritical are 



•-16 



JOURNAL OF A TOUR 



all its actions ; and having got, at last, a brace of Rijxi, 
I was very well pleased. There are two kinds of Ripa bere, 
the Jield or mountain Ripa, — Tetrao rupestris of Sabine, — 
and the Dal or wood Ripa, — Tetrao Saliceti of Temminck. 
The latter is the larger bird, and lives, as its name implies, 
on the low grounds, while the former inhabits the summits of 
the mountains. I never saw the T. rupestris alive, nor, 
though I offered a high price, could ] procure a specimen, of 
which I had been very desirous, in order to compare the two 
species. I may here mention the extreme difficulty that I 
always found in inducing the Norwegian peasant to do any 
service of this kind. In summer, the people are mostly en- 
gaged in the fishery, at which work they can make as much 
money in three months as will support themselves and their 
families during the rest of the year. Their time is therefore 
valuable, and they set a high price upon it. Moreover they 
are a most supine set, totally unconcerned about bettering 
their condition. Mr. Crowe did not think it possible to 
induce them to send their children, who had no employment 
whatever, to gather the Lichen tartareus and L. pustulatus, 
which yield the famous Cudbear dye, and which 1 was pecu- 
liarly desirous of obtaining for Mr. M'Intosh of Glasgow, the 
celebrated manufacturer of this dye, and perhaps still better 
known as the inventor and fabricator of the waterproof cloth 
which bears his name. All the Norwegian peasants care for, 
is to get plenty to eat, drink, and smoke, during the winter ; 
if they have this and nothing to do, they are satisfied. 

When, on recrossing the Fiord with my treasures, I open- 
ed my bag to count my game, to my surprise I found the 
Katyogle alive and comparatively well. He sat on my finger, 



TO THE NORTHERN PARTS OF NORWAY. 



47 



preened his ruffled plumage and seemed dazzled with the 
light ; when, all of a sudden, as I was admiring him and 
hoping that, with care, he might recover of his wounds, he 
opened his wings and darted off, skimming along the surface 
of the Fiord and was soon fairly out of sight, leaving me to 
look as foolish as may be imagined. 1 found a considerable 
quantity of ripe alpine Strawberries, growing among the 
rocks : they are far less than those raised in our gardens, 
about as big as a small pistol bullet, — but a much higher 
flavoured fruit. 

Sunday, 31st After breakfast, Mr. Crowe's house was 

throwu open to all the English in Kaafiord, who soon filled 
the room to hear divine service ; and Mrs. Crowe, who was, 
by this time, " as well as could be expected," made her ap- 
pearance. This lady is a native of the country and deemed 
one of the belles of the North of Norway. De Capell 
Brooke's likeness of her is far from doing justice to her fine 
complexion, beautiful light hair, and charming features. 

The Sunday is here considered to be over at six in the after- 
noon. The storehouse is then open, and it is the busiest time 
in the whole week, for as the hours are not counted as work- 
ing ones, so the people almost all make a point of getting 
pisk or drunk on the Sabbath. The Mountain Lapps gener- 
ally come down on that day with their Deer, from their sum- 
mer encampments, or Rehn-bye, to attend church, and after- 
wards make purchases and become intoxicated. I took this 
opportunity of sketching the particular dresses of these people ; 
they did not like at first to be made the subject of a drawing; 
the cause of this originates in a superstitious idea, which is 
pretty common among the ignorant, that having the likeness 



48 JOURNAL OF A TOUR 

of any person gives the possessor a power of bringing harm 
upon the individual whose similitude it is. This was of course 
the true reason why one man refused, though I was much 
amused at the objections he started, when I expressed a wish 
to sketch his wife, a mountain Lapp, who was a remarkably 
characteristic specimen of her national peculiarities. " No," 
said the husband, " it must not be : she has not her gold and 
silver ornaments on. ,, After a while, however, and what was 
of more effect than the persuasions of Mr. Woodfall, after a 
few glasses of rum, he consented ; and when I showed him 
her likeness and costume, he exclaimed, " that it was as like 
as if looking into a looking glass |" and he was particularly 
delighted at hearing that my drawing was going to England, 
where it would be shown as his beautiful consort. The man 
was already very proud of her, and this circumstance raised 
her value at least fifty per cent, in his eyes. (See Plate III. 

An occurrence took place here this evening, as it does every 
Sunday, which I was very desirous of witnessing, and this was 
a Quan dance. It was held in a house close by; and having 
persuaded Captain Thomas to go also, we proceeded thither. 
No dressing indeed was required; thick boots and a pea- 
jacket were my equipment ; and all the instructions I re- 
ceived were, to carry plenty of tobacco. So, pipe in mouth, I 
sallied forth, through mud, wet and rain, walking into the 
apartment without a whit of introduction, and there I already 
found the Harriet's Skipper, skipping round the room with a 
Quan damsel, whose flat and shapeless face was aptly com- 



* Where the female figure represents the person in question. 



TO THE NORTHERN PARTS OF NORWAY. 



49 



pared to a model in putty, which had been sate upon before 
it had hardened. We squeezed our way up to the top of the 
room, where there was a large fire, over which five or six old 
women were cowering, one of whom busied herself in strok- 
ing a child's head, and ever and anon committing to the ex- 
terminating flames some unlucky straggler which she captured 
there. The men had, almost all, birch pipes in their mouths, 
and these they did not always relinquish while dancing. 
Fearing to give mortal offence if I departed without joining 
in the evening's amusement, (i do not mean the ancient 
crone's occupation,) I looked round for the most cleanly girl 
in the room, and began waltzing till I could hardly stop my- 
self, being regaled the while with delectable odours of salt-fish 
and ill prepared deer-skins. I was astonished to see both 
men and women swallowing large draughts of cold water, 
while in a state of profuse perspiration, and seeming to re- 
ceive no injury from a practice which would give most Eng- 
lishmen inflammation in the bowels, or something of the kind. 
These poor creatures were certainly more innocently employ- 
ed than their neighbours at the store, not a drop of spirits 
being touched among them. We had not been long in the 
house when we were summoned back to Mr. Crowe's where 
the ladies had got up a dance and were in want of partners, 
and these companions being far more agreeable than the 
Quan belles, and the mode of dancing less violent, we kept 
up the festivity till far into morning, and went to bed suf- 
ficiently tired. 

Monday, August, 1st. — A party was formed to see the 
mines, and I started with them, but soon proved a deserter, 
being anxious to sketch the environs of Kaafiord, the Bay, 

G 



50 



JOURNAL OF A TOUR 



Works, &c, (see Plate 2.) during which time my friends 
having completed their subterranean researches, emerged 
from the bowels of the earth, the ladies having a most pic- 
turesque appearance in the miners 1 caps and cloaks. I then 
rejoined them, and we returned home. 

J ust at this time our French acquaintances arrived, having 
accomplished their excursion to the North Cape, and being 
desirous of visiting the copper mines and works at Kaafiord, 
whither they immediately proceeded, and were highly pleas- 
ed, especially with the process of purifying the copper, as 
performed in the laboratory of Captain Thomas. They after- 
wards dined at Mr. Crowe's hospitable board, and spoke of 
Bossikop, which they had been visiting, and whither some of 
our party had already gone. I followed shortly after, in com- 
pany with my kind friend, Captain Thomas, having persuaded 
Mr. Walker to come also. From Kaafiord to Bossikop is 
about ten miles by water, and the people seldom think of tra- 
velling, in summer, by any other means. We therefore got 
into a native boat, one of the Norway yawls, and a more 
comfortable conveyance can hardly be imagined. I shall 
endeavour to describe these vessels. They are very light, and 
at the same time, particularly strong, not difficult of manage- 
ment, nor easily upset ; they carry a large square sail in the 
very middle of the boat, the stern-sheets are also large and 
without any after-thorts. The timbers are so tightly put to- 
gether that not a drop of water ever makes its way in. When 
used for short excursions, Reindeer-skins are laid in the bottom 
of the boat, and the traveller rolls himself up in his Paesk, 
and puts on his Skall-komagers } while the heap of baggage, 



TO THE NORTHERN PARTS OF NORWAV. 



51 



similarly enveloped, serves for a pillow, and he has another 
Deer-skin above him. Thus, nothing' can be more comfort- 
able than such a gite. The tiller, which one might suppose 
would be in the way, is quite differently contrived ; at first it 
projects over the side, and then, with a joint, it turns along 
the gunwale, and is held by the man who manages the sail 
and sternmost oar. He sits looking forward, and rowing one 
oar, while the others handle two oars, and sit looking aft. Ac- 
cidents seldom happen, unless the men be pisk. The fellows 
are clever, and their craft both sail and pull fast. The thole- 
pins are curious contrivances : to make these, the boat- 
builder selects a crooked birch branch, and fixes it to the side 
of the boat, with one of the limbs of the branch sticking above 
the gunwale, and pointing aft ; the oar is tied to this, and 
works underneath it, thus obviating the necessity of removing 
the oar when the rower requires to use his hand for something 
else. The oar is short, light, and more paddle-shaped than ours. 
The boats are turned up at both ends, about four breadths of 
planks sufficing for them, and these are fastened together by 
wooden pins, instead of nails. {See Plate III. fig. 2.) 

We slept very comfortably, till roused by the boat thump- 
ing against Mr. VendaPs wooden pier, at Bossikop. This 
was about half-past two, a.m. No one was to be seen, but 
proceeding to the house of Madame Klerck, we found it un- 
locked, though the inmates were all in bed, and asleep. 
Captain Thomas went to rouse some slumberer, who should 
get our beds ready, and our hostess, as soon as she heard of 
our arrival, sent down wine and cake, after partaking of 
which, we retired to finish our night's rest on shore. Madame 
Klerck is the widow of a highly respectable merchant at 



52 



JOURNAL OF A TOUR 



Bossikop. The regulation in tins country is, that in order to 
secure the exclusive right of carrying on mercantile transact- 
ions in any district, the individual must become a Giestgiver, 
that is, must entertain all strangers at a certain fixed rate ; 
this rate is, of course, much too low to repay the trouble and 
expense thus incurred, and is therefore a kind of tax for the 
privilege; and Madame Klerck, though she let the business 
to the hands of another, is compelled, either by her own hos- 
pitable feelings, or by law, to continue the custom, which she 
does indeed with the greatest possible readiness. The couches 
we went to, were quite novel to us; the beds and pillows 
being of Eider-down, and the coverlids stuffed with the same 
material. This latter article was at once warm and light, but 
we sunk so deeply into our beds, that it appeared somewhat 
problematical whether we should ever rise from them in the 
morning. 

Tuesday, August 2nd — We were called from our downy 
slumbers by the entrance of a damsel, who offered to each of 
us a cup of strong coffee to sip in bed ; not as a substitute for 
breakfast, but simply to serve as an awakening draught and 
to rouse us thoroughly. This custom we found to be universal 
in all Norske families ; my father had witnessed it in Iceland ; 
and as was the case there, so here the best looking girl in the 
house is selected to perform this office. It is certainly not 
unpleasant to see a fair-haired blue-eyed child of the north, 
the first thing in the morning, before one is fairly awake, and 
to sip the refreshing coffee, which is proffered with sucli 
modest grace, as induced some of us to doze a little longer, 
in hopes of being favoured with a second visit. Having 
leaped from our couches and commenced dressing, we, who 



TO THE NORTHERN PARTS OF NORWAY. 



53 



were strangers, felt not a little abashed at seeing- our Hebe 
return for our empty cups before we were half clad, and 
wished ourselves back in bed ; but she walked quite uncon- 
cernedly past us, reminding- me forcibly of the scripture 
expression, " thinking no evil/' for it seemed to be a matter 
of no moment to her whether we were dressed or not; and 
when we said " mony tak," she quietly curtsied, and replying 
"welbekommen/' went away with our cups, 

Madame Klerck was waiting for us when we came down, 
and cordially welcomed us to Bossikop. I recognised her as 
one of Mr. Crowe's late guests, whose name, as well as that 
of many others, had escaped my memory, or defied the powers 
of my tongue, albeit habituated to Scottish appellations, to 
pronounce, while at the same time, the appearance of the in- 
dividual's person was faithfully retained. 

Our French friends had also arrived, and we all seated our- 
selves to a " Frokost," (breakfast) which was of a pretty sub- 
stantial nature, and then, taking our guns, accompanied M. 
Le Baron Sibouet to visit the Ripas copper-miues, situated 
upon the mountains of the same name. Our course lay over 
a most beautiful and level tract of country, striking through a 
portion of the great Alten forest, till we came to an open plain 
of several miles in extent, clothed with tufts of Vaccinium Myr- 
tilluSf the Blaebaer, (in Scots, Blaeberry) and of Ki akebaer, 
(Croivberry) among which were immeuse numbers of ant-hills, 
formed of the twigs and small leaves of the latter plant. The 
Formic acid smelt quiie strong, and I was afterwards told by 
a native of Sweden, that in the central parts of that countrv 
they often boil these ants, and, straining the liquor, obtain a 
kind of weak vinegar. The soil here was light and sandv, 



54 



JOURNAL OF A TOUR 



and seemed to be all of an alluvial character. We saw 
several beautiful Peregrins Falcons, but these birds kept a 
true "hawk's eye" upon us, so after a fruitless chase of an 
hour or more, we continued our way, and soon reached the 
noble Alten river, a broad, deep, and rapid stream, which is 
continually undermining its banks, and encreasing the size of 
its channel. My most sanguine expectations were surpassed 
by the loveliness of the scenery. I sat down to attempt 
a delineation of its highly picturesque beauties, but the more 
I tried, the farther did I seem from attaining my object; for, 
after finishing my sketch, and comparing it with the lovely 
original, I felt utterly disheartened at observing how it failed 
in conveying the least idea of the brilliant and living reality. 
On this side of the river, I mean about the spot where I sat, 
there were no mosquitoes; for what reason I could not tell ; 
but one or two places were equally exempt, and I vainly 
puzzled my brains to account for the circumstance of the 
absence of these plagues: no difference being apparent, ex- 
cept that the localities in question are invariably and pre- 
eminently the most beautiful I ever saw. The native name 
for Mosquito is Mouga or Mouge, an appellation as like the 
Scottish word Midge as is the insect's propensity for human 
blood, and both words evidently derived from the French 
Mouche. Nor are the natives of Norway themselves by any 
means exempt from the attacks of these persevering phlebo- 
tomizers. I remember to have seen one countryman perfectly 
blinded for a time; I prescribed for him Goulard- water, with 
excellent effect. The mention of mosquitoes calls to mind 
the Furia infemalis, of which both Linnseus and Dr. Clarke 
speak; but their horrifying tales are quite scouted by the 



TO THE NORTHERN PARTS OF NORWAY, 



55 



Norwegians, who attach no credit to either of these eminent 
Naturalists 1 relations. 

We were ferried across the Alten in long canoes, one man 
standing on the bow, and another on the stern, and punting 
us over, while we lay huddled together at the bottom of the 
boat. We passed a number of stakes or posts, stretched 
across a ford on the river ; one post was set upright, while 
another was laid obliquely on the top, with its lower end 
driven into the bed of the stream ; upon these piles the people 
fix their salmon-nets, but in what manner 1 could not learn. 
As soon as we had reached the other side, the Mougas 
attacked us with renewed vigour, and our guide was sadly 
annoyed with them. This man, a Russian by birth, had been 
too long absent from his native country to be able to speak its 
language perfectly, and he was even more deficient in every 
other; a very little Norske and Russ, some Quanish, and 
about twenty words of English, completed the vocabulary 
in which poor Prakopen gave vent to all his wrath against the 
mosquitoes ; and so truly ridiculous was the jargon he uttered, 
that all our own sufferings could not hinder us from laughing 
immoderately. This fellow had married a Quan woman, of 
whose beauty he was so proud that he took me one day to see 
her. J could not resist the temptation of joking with him, and 
telling Prakopen, whose eyes sparkled with pride, that his 
spouse was more resplendent than the sun, and more lovely 
than the moon; but to speak plainly, she was just like her 
countrywomen, inconceivably ugly. 

In this part of Norway, an excellent plan is adopted for 
carrying luggage and loose articles; they are deposited in a 
kind of flat square basket, formed of thin slips of Fir-wood, 



56 



JOURNAL OF A TOUR 



light and yet strong; cords, which pass over and under each 
shoulder, attach this basket pretty firmly to the back, much 
after the fashion of a soldier's knapsack, thus the arms are 
left free and unencumbered, by which the bearer is enabled 
to assist himself in climbing the hills, &c. 

After shooting a number of Ducks and Flappers in the 
marshes, we proceeded up the Ripas mountains to the mines. 
These mines, which are but recently opened, and belong to 
the Alten Company, are peculiarly rich, the ore yielding a 
much larger per centage of metal than those at Kaafiord. 

We rested in a Gamine, or Lapp hut, and I no longer 
wondered at the prevalence of sore eyes among the lower 
classes — a circumstance which I had, previously, chiefly at- 
tributed to the dazzling winters snows — the hut being so full 
of smoke that I could hardly breathe. The roofs of the Ripas 
mines are very low, so that, stooping considerably, I still re- 
ceived some contusions on the head. In these mines there 
are several shafts which descend a considerable depth. I 
found pretty specimens of red arseniate of Cobalt, and of 
green carbonate of Copper, or Malachite. After exploring 
the mines we returned to the River, and observed Prakopen 
issuing from the ferry-house and devouring raw Salmon. He 
offered me some, assuring me that it was quite freshly caught, 
and "meiget gut;* This fish is called Lax here, as in Iceland, 
and I should have cheerfully tried how it tasted uncooked and 
uncured, but that I could not resolve to eat it after it had 
been fingered over by a filthy Russ. Glad were we to obtain 
a temporary respite from the mosquitoes ; M. Le Baron ex- 
claiming, " a bas les JMoustiches," Prakopen denouncing 
them as emissaries of Gammel Eric, (Old Nick) and we all 



TO THE NORTHERN PARTS OF NORWAY. 



57 



wishing that they were like the Egyptian locusts, laid in the 
depths of the Red Sea. 

The Pedicularis Sceptrum Caroli was abundant in this vi- 
cinity, growing in similar localities to those where I had first 
seen this interesting plant ; there was also a great variety of 
Willows, which I gathered, hoping they would find a place in 
the rich Salicetum of His Grace the Duke of Bedford, binding 
up their ends in moss to keep them moist, till Mr. Christy 
should see them, and determine whether they were worth the 
conveyance home. I also collected such ripe seeds of different 
Willows and other plants as I could find, pocketing, doubtless, 
in my ignorance, much trash and plenty of duplicates. A few 
Alders grew in moist places, and abundance of Wild Currants, 
very sour and bad, and infested with a dusty red blight, similar 
to what attacks our Gooseberry, only more powdery. 

When we reached Bossikop, we found that a number of ladies 
had arrived, together with Mr. Crowe, Mr. Christy, the Berg- 
master, Mr. Gait, our Captain, and Dr. Greisdale. Our party, 
however, dined alone, and 1 was not sorry that we did so, as 
I should have been utterly ashamed to let any one see the 
inordinate appetites we displayed, and the consequent clear- 
ance of provisions that we made. 

On adjourning to the withdrawing room, I found Frau 
Griintwyt, Yungfrau Stabell, and the Amptmaninde, or Amp- 
man's lady, singing Norske songs to the accompaniment of the 
piano-forte. They displayed great taste and feeling in their 
performance, and many of the airs were very pleasing, espe- 
cially that mentioned by Dr. Clarke, of which the words 
begin : 



H 



58 



JOURNAL OF A TOUR 



For Norge Kiempers Fbde land, 
Vi denne Skaal udtomme. 

I had thought that in these hyperborean latitudes the art of 
music would have been neglected, so that it was quite an 
agreeable surprise to me to find that both here and at Ham- 
merfest there is a great deal of taste displayed for this de- 
lightful amusement. Some of the old national strains appear 
quite to inspire the people, and even a stranger (I, at least,) 
could not hear them unmoved. The Lapps do not sing, 
except a kind of howling incantation which they chant against 
the Wolves, be so termed ; four or five words uttered inces- 
santly, at the very top of their voice, till the lungs are 
collapsed for want of air, compose all the music with which 
these people are acquainted. 

The Fins or Quans, again, sing, and are rather musical in 
their way ; and the Russian sailors were continually exercising 
their voices, especially in the evenings ; at such times, when 
many of these people joined in the strain, 

" the sounds, by distance tame, 
" Mellowed along the waters came, 
" And lingering long by Fiord and Bay, 
" "Wailed every harsher note away." 

I have often stood and listened with pleasure, under such cir- 
cumstances, to lays which would perhaps have proved harsh 
and monotonous if they had sounded close upon the ear. Thus 

" distance lends enchantment" 

to sound as well as sight. 

August 3rd, Wednesday. — A party were again proceeding 
to the Ripas mines, but unwilling to be quite demolished by 



TO THE NORTHERN PARTS OF NORWAY. 



59 



the mosquitoes, and thinking t might spend my time more 
agreeably in the pursuit of Birds and fine scenery, I declined 
accompanying them, and set off in an opposite direction, first, 
however, going to visit a poor woodcutter who had wounded 
his leg with a hatchet. Mr. Walker accompanied me, but 
previously we found it needful to obtain an interpreter (taalk } ) 
who should also serve as a guide (rvappus.) A Swede, who 
had been some time in England, and spoke our language very 
fluently, offered his services, and among other things he com- 
municated to us his regrets that he had been so foolish as to 
marry a Norske woman, by whom he had several children, 
and was thus prevented by law from returning to England, 
where he wished he could settle, as he felt confident he could 
soon make his fortune! I found my patient had received 
a severe cut, the bone having been chipped. Upon enquir- 
ing what application had been already used, the people 
showed me a substance which they procure by boiling the 
young tops of Fir, sliced into small pieces, thus extracting the 
juice, aud making, in fact, Riga Balsam. No one had given 
them any directions how to prepare or apply this substance ; 
w but," said they, " our forefathers always used it, and so do 
we." This little discovery in Pharmaceutics quite pleased me, 
and with the freely proffered milk, dried salmon, and Rye- 
cake, together with the sincere and still more acceptable 
" mony tak," I thought myself well repaid for the expense 
of a guide, and a few miles' walk. 

Acerbi, I find, lias noticed this Norwegian mode of dressing 
wounds ; when at Alten he searched the empty dwelling of a 
Lapp family, " and found nothing,' ' he says, " in the way of 
curiosity, but a box of Rosin: this juice issues from the Fir= 



60 



JOURNAL OF A TOUR 



tree, and the Laplanders make an ointment of it for dressing 
wounds." 

The house of my patient was situated on the banks of the 
Alten river, just at a spot where the stream undermines its 
banks, and carries away every year three or four yards of 
soil, depositing as much sand on the opposite side. Our 
guide was a very shrewd and intelligent fellow. To my en- 
quiries about the Capercailzie ( Tetrao Urogallus) he replied 
that the cock bird of this species is now comparatively scarce 
in the neighbourhood, and not known by that name at all, 
but is called Stor Fugle, the "big bird," par excellence; 
while the hen, which is far more common, goes by the name 
of Tioure. Wolves are also rare to what they have been, not 
being seen in droves, but only one or two at a time; and 
Bears hardly show themselves in summer, so that our hopes 
of an encounter with Bruin were quite disappointed, whom 
the natives call Bjom. 

Mr. Walker having proceeded to the other side of the 
river, in order to entomologize, I planted myself on the bank 
of the Alten, to make a sketch of the surrounding scenery ; 
when, all of a sudden, the earth on which I was sitting gave 
way, and with a couple of as complete summersets as were 
ever performed at Astley's amphitheatre, I was precipitated 
into the stream, where, had 1 been unable to swim, J should 
have met with a very cold-water grave. " Facilis descensus,'' 
thought I, as my sketch-book, containing all my previous 
journal, notes, and most of my drawings, &c, went gallantly 
sailing down to the Fiord, whither feeling no inclination to 
follow it, 1 struck out my arms and legs, using my utmost 
endeavours to extricate myself from this icy bath, well know- 



TO THE NORTHERN PARTS OF NORWAY, 



61 



ing that my most powerful exertions were not more than 
sufficient to carry me, encumbered as I was with all my 
clothes, komager-boots, and a well filled shot-belt, across a 
broad, deep, and rapid river. At last I emerged, but at the 
bank opposite to that from which I had entered. To have 
ascended the latter, would, indeed, have been impossible, as 
the bank dipped abruptly from a height of twenty feet into the 
river. The dog, Lion by name, who had plunged boldly into 
the river after me, was no where to be seen, and I began to 
feel much at a loss what to do, for the idea of returning by 
the way I came was by no means agreeable ; moreover, the 
mosquitoes, now that I was on this side of the river, began to 
torment me desperately ; my tinder was wet, as well as my 
powder, so I could not smoke. After a while I espied a 
countryman, and requested him to ferry me across, but 
whether from unwillingness, or from ignorance of the mean- 
ing of my broken Norske, he continually replied, " Nae, 
nae," though I backed my eloquence with the persuasive 
argument of a wet and ragged twenty-four skilling note, 
which I extracted from my soaked pocket, and gave him to 
understand that it should become his if he complied with my 
proposal. Finding that no help could be obtained from that 
quarter, I set to running up the river in search of Mr. 
Walker, when to my great joy I espied Prakopen trudging 
along loaded with the provision basket which belonged to 
the Ripas party. However, the rights of property weighed 
with me but little, under my present shivering and half-drown- 
ed circumstances ; and first the schnapps and then the eat- 
ables suffered considerable diminution, which was actively 
prosecuted when Mr. Walker arrived. After being thus re- 



62 



JOURNAL OF A TOUR 



invigorated, Mr. Walker and I recrossed the Alten'a frigid 
waters, and to my great satisfaction 1 found my gun lying 
safely where I left it, and Lion sitting beside it. 

The party from the Ripas mines had arrived at Bossikop 
before us, and were proceeding to supper at the Fogedgaard, 
with the widow of the late Foged. As soon as I had chang- 
ed my wet garments, I followed them, and found a large 
number of persons assembled ; but as Captain Moyse was 
going to send to Kaafiord that night, I accompanied the boat, 
wishing to obtain from on board the Harriet, some more 
drawing-paper, powder and shot, &c. 1 therefore wrapped 
myself again in my paesk, and lying down in the bottom of 
the boat, soon reached our good ship, where, after executing 
my own errands, and the commissions of my friends, I pass- 
ed the rest of the night. 

August 4th, Thursday. — I was early stirring this morning, 
and summoning the boatmen, departed for Bossikop. The 
passage was very rough, but proportionally rapid, and the 
little Norwegian skiff dashed off 

" like a thing of life," — 

and that " thing" a stormy Petrel, — over the crested billows ; 
and when we neared the pier at Bossikop, the Captain, who 
awaited our arrival, had expected to see ourselves and the 
boat go down together, — but his fears in this matter only- 
proved that he knew the seaworthiness of the Norske boats, 
and the skill of their mariners less than his own, for we gained 
the landing-place without shipping so much as a drop of water. 

When I reached Madame Klerck's house, I found that she 
and the other ladies were going to the Sandfaldet. This 



TO THE NORTHERN PARTS OF NORWAY. 



63 



place, as its name implies, is a Fall of Sand, — a hill of that 
substance extending like a tongue into the Alten river, into 
which it dips abruptly ; it is beautifully clothed with trees, 
except at the extremity, where it is very steep and composed 
of gravelly sand, forming a striking and prominent feature in 
this view of the river. 

I cannot say that my pleasure in this excursion was pecu- 
liarly enhanced, when Consul Crowe, with a malicious look, 
promoted me to escort a rather stout lady, who neither spoke 
nor understood a syllable of English, and my mortification 
was increased by the glee with which Mr. Christy kept ahead 
the whole way, accompanied by our kind-hearted landlady, 
while he ever and anon cast back a triumphant glance at me, 
who toiled on, dragging my heavy and silent partner. In my 
secret soul, I formed the determination to give her the slip on 
the first opportunity, and leave her to seek some more gallant 
companion, who should be able to devote his whole attention 
to her, instead of wanting to look about him, make sketches, 
and talk. 

We proceeded through a very thickly wooded tract, form- 
ing, in fact, a part of the great Alten Forest, covered with 
Scotch Firs, the Norwegian Pine being unable to withstand 
the winter's cold of these districts, until we reached Robber- 
stadt, a word signifying the Copper City, but why so called I 
could not discover, as no copper exists anywhere in the neigh- 
bourhood, the whole being an immensely extensive and deep 
tract of alluvial soil, nor is there so much as a town or even 
a village in this spot, only one rather small dwelling, with its 
outhouses. The country is very pretty, and we here halted 
to partake of some Chocolate and Filbunke. In their par- 



64 



JOURNAL OF A TOUR 



tiality for pots of flowers placed in their windows, the Nor- 
wegians evince quite a Cockney taste ; I have been surprised 
to see plants of considerable rarity in the cottages of these 
peasantry. Clarkia pulchella, for instance, which only twelve 
years before, had been introduced by the lamented Douglas 
from the shores of the Columbia River in North West Ame- 
rica, graced the cottage at Kobberstadt, and I have even 
observed this delicate and singularly shaped flower in many 
dwellings of a very inferior description. 

Many plants, far from common in our more favoured clime, 
were cultivated in Madame Klerck's house, her especial pet 
being a dwarf pomegranate, of the name of which she was 
ignorant. Its Norske name neither Mr. Christy or I knew, 
so turning in a Norwegian Bible to Solomon's Song, we at 
once found it to be Granat Apfel, which discovery pleased 
our kind hostess greatly, raising the little shrub highly in her 
estimation. 

Proceeding a little farther, we came to a plain, about four 
miles in length, and not quite half a mile in breadth, perfectly 
flat, and as smooth as a well kept bowling-green, bounded on 
one side by a series of steep declivities or sand-falls, about 
ninety or a hundred feet in height, fringed with birch trees 
and crowned with stately firs, while on the other side lay the 
deep wood whence we had just emerged. One would have 
almost thought, so regularly did the trees mark the boundary 
between themselves and the plain, not a single fir or birch 
straggling into the smooth green-sward, that some giant had 
cleared it for his avenue. At one end, this elongated plain 
took a turn, thus hiding Kobberstadt from our view, while 
glancing forward to the very extremity, we caught sight of 



TO THE NORTHERN PARTS OF NORWAY. 65 

the broad Alten River, and the Saridfaldet itself. The herbage 
here was peculiarly rich, and not a mosquito came to interrupt 
our admiration of nature's charms. Madame Klerck said 
that the snow melts away from this place so speedily, that 
vegetation is always much forwarder here than anywhere else 
in the neighbourhood, so that the verdure is lovely, before 
any signs of winter's departure take place elsewhere. We 
now began the ascent of the Sandfaldet, and I heartily wished 
that my ponderous companion was not appended to my arm. 
No more than two persons could walk abreast on this narrow 
pathway, and we formed a long train, when suddenly a noble 
Sea-Eagle, who had been sitting on a dead tree close by, soared 
directly past us, within ten yards, and quite calmly! What 
would I not have given for my gun at that moment ? Never 
before had I gone abroad without carrying it, slung across my 
shoulders, and I sorely fear that a few rather uncomplimentary 
expressions dropped from my mouth against the ladies, on 
whose account I had left it behind ; but fortunately, for me, 
these speeches were not understood by the parties against 
whom they were levelled. Soon, however, I recovered my 
lost temper, and thought better of my fair companions, for 
when we reached the top, we found an excellent collation 
prepared, which Madame Klerck, with her usual kindness and 
forethought, had provided, and to which we all sat down with 
pretty sharp appetites. The view was splendid in the extreme, 
whichever way we turned our eyes. The Alten River wound 
at a distance of about 400 feet beneath us, its surface unruffled, 
save by the occasional leap of a large Salmon, whose burnished 
scales glittered in the rays of the declining sun. On the other 
side we saw the Ripas Mountains, rising from rich fertile 

i 



66 



JOURNAL OF A TOUR 



plains and rallies, while to the left the river divided into 
shallow sandy mouths, and ran into the Alten Fiord, which, 
far in the distance, was agitated by a squall of wind and rain. 
Every object, far or near, was seen with the utmost clearness, 
spread at our feet as distinctly as in a map. I thought to 
myself, Oh ! where' s the artist whose pencil could do justice 
to such a scene, so splendid as a whole, and embracing such a 
variety of views ? There was the mountainous and rocky, 
the valley and the plain, — the richly wooded and the barren 
sandy, — the placid stream and the stormy fiord. — I never be- 
held such a beautiful and harmonious, though highly diversi- 
fied, combination ! The sun was warm, and with his oblique 
rays, tinted all nature with the most gorgeous hues. Pity, 
thought I, that winter should reign here during seven months 
of every year ! But winter is to the Norwegians the gayest 
and happiest season of all. I was trying to reconcile this to 
my ideas of pleasure, when Prakopen came to inform me, in 
his polyglott language, that the provisions were in progress of 
consumption ; so I deemed it high time to look after noget a 
spece — et something to eat,''— .Reindeer ham and tongues, 
smoked Bear ham and many other articles were set before us, 
together with the never failing smoked raw Lax, of which I 
soon became very fond. The Bear ham would be good if it 
were not so tough ; this may be equivalant to saying it would 
not be bad if it was but good, but what 1 mean is that the flavor 
is very fine, and that if the flesh were that of a Bear Cub, 
instead of a full grown animal, it would be undeniably excel- 
lent. It is eaten like the Reindeer ham, smoked and cured, 
but otherwise uncooked. Mean while, Madame Klerck con- 
trived to get a fire lighted, and busied herself in boiling coffee, 



TO THE NORTHERN PARTS OF NORWAY. 



67 



during the preparation of which, the party gathered along the 
brow of the Sandfaldet, and for want of something to do, began 
to speak of the exploit of running to the bottom. A few 
bottles of champagne and claret were betted ; but while every 
one was ready to exclaim how easy it would be, no one cared 
to try, when Madame Klerck, seeing what was going forward, 
seized hold of Mr. Gait's hand, and ran the whole way down. 

The evening passed agreeably, for I managed to shirk my 
former silent companion, and leaving her to find an escort 
elsewhere, descended with Mr. Christy, and Captain Thomas, 
on the opposite side of the Sandfaldet to that by which we had 
climbed it, and under the escort of Matthias Griintwyt, a son of 
Fran Griintwyt, a particularly amiable, sensible, and interest- 
ing boy, we went to the Amptmangaard, near the Elvebachen, 
a small Quan village, signifying back of the river. The Ampt- 
mangaard is a house and grounds belonging to the Amptman, 
who is a kind of Lord High Sheriff. This dignitary does not 
reside here now, and the dwelling is accordingly shut up. 
Before it lies a natural lawn, stretching for about a mile down 
to the Alten fiord, across which it looks to Storvig (the big 
Bay,) on the right it commands a view of Rcifsbottn, while at 
the back of the house rises a hill, composed of a triple terrace, 
which seems to have been originally formed by some receding 
of the waters, but is now clothed with thick woods. 

Rafsbottn, (the Ravens' dell) we learned, is a very grand 
valley, remarkably picturesque, full of noble views, and stored 
with abundance of game of all sorts ; thither, accordingly, we 
began planning an excursion, if our time allowed ; but the 
intention (professed by our Captain) of sailing on Monday, 
defeated these schemes of pleasure. 



68 



JOURNAL OF A TOUR 



After visiting- the Amptmangaard, — with the natural beau- 
ties of which Mr. Christy became so enamoured that he had 
serious intentions of purchasing this property, — we returned 
to Bossikop, and passed a place, where a church was building 
for Kaafiord ! a place, distant I should think full fifty miles 
by land, and about twenty by water. This struck us as very 
curious, and we asked if, like the Americans, they set houses 
to travel. The church-builders, who were working with no 
tools save a very sharp and solid-headed hatchet, which they 
handled most dexterously, informed us, that after constructing 
the edifice, and finding that all its parts were correctly fitted 
together, their plan was then to take it asunder, and forming 
rafts of it, float it along the Fiords till it reached the spot near 
the Kaafiord mines, where it was to take up its final stand ; 
when its re-erection would be the work of a very short time. 
It may be asked why this church was originally built so far 
from Kaafiord, and the reason assigned to me was, that many 
carpenters reside at Elvebachen, where large timber trees are 
also easily procured. This place of worship is intended for 
the accommodation of the miners, for Mr. Crowe finding that 
so large and so populous a spot as the site of the Kaafiord 
works was greatly in need of a nearer church than that of 
Talvig, which is twelve or fourteen miles distant, exerted 
himself, and J am happy to say, at last successfully, in obtain- 
ing permission from the Swedish Government to build one. 
Of course, no religion or form of worship save the Lutheran, 
which alone is tolerated by the Swedish Government, will be 
permitted. So bigoted are the religious, or rather political 
scruples of this country, that no Jew is ever allowed to set his 
foot in the kingdom of Sweden : if only suspected of being a 



TO THE NORTHERN PARTS OF NORWAY. 69 

Hebrew, the individual is examined, and if found to be so, is 
forthwith banished at the expense of government. Even 
Englishmen have fallen under such suspicion, and have been 
subjected to scrutiny, of which I heard some very ludicrous 
instances. 

I may also, now that I am in the mood for giving explana- 
tions, elucidate a term which has been used more than once, 
and that is, Gaard pronounced Gord ; such as Altengaard, 
Fogedgaard, Priestgaard and Amptmangaard. This word 
has several meanings, according to circumstances ; Alten- 
gaard, signifying the district of Alten ; while Amptman, 
Fogedt or Priestgaard are applied to denote the official resi- 
dences of the clergyman, Fogedt, &c. It never means a 
house alone, but may be used when speaking of a house and 
offices, or a dwelling with land attached to it. 

After returning to Bossikop, I was told that the " banes of 
ane Russ'' lay in a hole in some rock not very far off, and 
being inclined to go resurrectionizing, I engaged to meet my 
little friend, Matthias Griintywt, the next morning to seek 
out the place. Then retiring to bed I sought repose, but this 
was not immediately attainable, for the hospitality of Madame 
Klerck had filled her house so much, that many individuals 
were obliged to lodge in the same apartment, and some of 
these not being so tired or so quietly disposed as myself, 
began to quarrel for beds ; the pillows, &c. were used as 
offensive missiles, and such a bustle arose as " murdered 
sleep" for several hours. 

Friday, August 5th. — More punctual to his appointment 
than myself, the engaging little Matthias presented himself 
when my coffee was brought in the morning ; and we sallied 



70 



JOURNAL OF A TOUR 



out to seek for the hemes of the Russ. After a long search, 
we found them, lying in a place entirely exposed, the rem- 
nants of an open coffin being scattered around ; and it is a 
very curious circumstance, that through the cranium, and 
even the inferior maxillary, were perfectly entire, with most 
of the teeth remaining, yet I could obtain no other bones ex- 
cept small fragments of the Iliac and Sacral bones. Now, it 
is a well known fact, that the inferior maxillary bone is gen- 
erally the first to be lost. Even in the Ganges, where so 
many, otherwise perfect skeletons may be daily seen, that 
jaw is almost always wanting. The bones were those of a 
man who had been dead, I was told, for thirty years, but, be 
it remembered, was never buried ; for he belonged to a sect 
in Russia, who never cover their dead, thinking that at the 
last day they would be unable to arise from beneath the su- 
perincumbent soil, but simply depositing them in an open 
coffin, leave the remains to be picked to pieces by the Ravens 
and bleached in the sun and rain. The orbit of the eyes, 
and the meatus auditorius were filled with the Splachnum 
mnioides. According to the phrenologists this cranium must 
have belonged to a sad rascal, for his occipital bone was ex- 
cessively protuberant, apparently pregnant with mischief ; 
but Madame Klerck, who knew him when alive, recollected 
no evil of the deceased. Near this place was a spot quite 
covered with the delicious Moltebaer ; this fruit is often 
brought to the Norske tables as a dessert, eaten with cream 
and sugar, and, sometimes, with the addition of the express- 
ed juice of the Krakebaer ; its virtues in removing biliary 
obstructions are well known to the people. 

Finding, on my return to Bossikop, that most of our party 



TO THE NORTHERN PARTS OF NORWAY. 71 

had already gone to Kaafiord, Mr. Christy and I immedi- 
ately started for the same place. 

August 6th, Saturday — It was with great satisfaction that 
I heard of the additional delay which had taken place in the 
sailing of the Harriet, which was now announced for Wed- 
nesday. I therefore employed the day in mineralogizing with 
Mr. John Crowe, while Mr. Woodfall, the Bergmaster, and 
our Captain proceeded to Iby, whither we intended to follow 
them the next day. This evening a sharp frost took place, 
and I learned that, generally, between the 15th and 25th of 
August, three or four severe nights may be expected, which 
cut off the turnep tops, potato leaves, &c. These are called 
the Aim-nachts, (iron-nights) and are regularly looked for ; 
but this year they have commenced unusually early. After 
this period again, there is little or no bad weather or frost 
until winter sets in. I ought to have mentioned sooner, that 
the heat was great during the whole of our stay at Alten, the 
thermometer averaging 750 in the shade ; and this is usual 
in summer. At Hammerfest, it is not generally so warm, 
nor the temperature so steady, this place lying farther north 
than Alten, and being exposed to all the keen north winds 
that blow from the Polar regions ; but even here, when the 
weather is calm, or the wind southerly, the sun lias a most 
powerful influence, and becomes very scorching. 

August 7th, Sunday.-— Having to reach Iby this evening, 
and the distance being considerable, we found it impractica- 
ble to delay our departure as we had wished, till six, p. m., 
and therefore started in the morning ; Messrs. Gait and J ohn 
Crowe, with Captain Thomas, accompanied Mr. Christy and 
myself to Iby. The first portion of our way was accomplished 



72 



JOURNAL OF A TOUR 



in boats, and just as we were passing under the high rocks 
on the side of the fiord, opposite to the works, the pair of 
Eagles which I had before noticed rose majestically before 
us, sweeping round in graceful gyres, as if to animate our 
spirits by the classical omen. We landed at a spot called 
Quan Vig or Quan Bay, a rather barren place, with a few 
houses. Here the mosquitoes presently commenced their 
wonted attacks, and on hurrying to those dwellings, to pro- 
cure a light for our pipes (for I had lost all my tinder) by 
which we might keep these creatures from our faces, we had 
the vexation to find them uninhabited. In the more marshy 
spots, this pest became so intolerable that I spent some time 
and more contrivance in my endeavours to ignite a piece of 
tow, in which I was finally successful, and after this, we pro- 
ceeded in comparative comfort. 

It astonished me as we went on, mile after mile, through 
a rich valley thickly wooded with noble Firs, sixty or seventy 
feet high, and along a chain of beautiful lakes, neither to see 
a single bird nor to hear so much as a note or chirrup, nor 
even the sound or sight of any insect, except, indeed, the hate- 
ful and incessant buzz and irritating sting of the ever-present 
mosquito, along with a species of moth, common everywhere 
in such places as the mosquitoes frequent. Such a complete 
absence of animal life was quite dismal. We stopped now 
and then to refresh ourselves, and slake our thirst with handfulls 
of the Moltebaer, and Kr'akebaer, which we found particularly 
grateful. 

A very striking object in these forests is the great number 
of dead Firs : some of these stand erect, and some are twist- 
ed in an extraordinary manner, similar, if one could imagine 



Tab. ///. 




Miscellaneous Sketches. 



TO THE NORTHERN PARTS OF NORWAY. 73 

such a thing-, to a rifle barrel turned inside out. These 
stems are considered as peculiarly excellent for masts, but 
one objection to their use is, that after being so employed for 
seme time, they are very apt to twist, and throw the cross- 
trees out of their proper parallel, and this is a sad eye-sore to 
a sailor. In passing through the woods I observed several 
trees, and the stumps of many others, which though dead and 
decayed, still stood erect, and bore all the appearance of being 
ringed, or rather undermined, at about a foot above the 
ground. On inquiry I was told that these injuries were 
caused by the horses, which amuse themselves in kicking and 
biting the dead trees, and thus accelerate their downfall, for 
they are so decayed as to resemble touch-wood ; but though 
the blame is laid upon the horses, I rather think Bruin has 
often a " finger or claw in the pye and if we can imagine, 
as is probably enough the practice with " ane lit bjorn," (a 
young bear,) — that he now and then forgets his wonted soli- 
dity of deportment, and like a cat stretching herself, and 
sticking her nails into the wainscot, he thus using his claws, may 
fairly receive a share of the blame upon his broad shoulders ; 
for I did see marks upon those trees which I examined, which 
could not have been made by a horse, and I think by no other 
instrument than a bear's claws. (See Plate II I. Jig, 5.) The 
trunks of several were perforated with large holes, occasioned, 
as my guide informed me, by a black and white Woodpecker. 
Others again, and generally the prostrate ones, were drilled 
by the great Black Ant, {Formica Hercideana,) from which I 
received several sharp bites, as I attempted to pop these in- 
sects into a bottle of spirits. Here we found four species of 
Splachnum, S, rubrum, S. luteum, S. ampullaceum, and S. 

K 



74 



JOURNAL OF A TOUR 



vascidosum, all growing together in one heap of horse- 
droppings. 

When we reached Iby, after a walk of nearly three Norske 
miles, each equivalent to seven English ones, we found that 
Madame Klerck and Madame Aasberg, with some other 
ladies, had arrived before us. They had come from Bossikop 
to meet us ; and Madame Klerck had, as usual, made provi- 
sion for our sharpened appetites. The house at Iby is a very 
good one, but situated quite alone in the midst of a wood. I 
soon wandered out with Matthias to the banks of the river 
Iby, a tributary of the Alten, which it joins at a distance of a 
few miles from this place. In passing through the wood on 
my way thither, we saw plenty of Squirrels running nimbly 
up the young trees of Fir and Birch, and leaping from one to 
another. If by chance these little animals found themselves 
in a situation whence they could not easily reach another tree, 
they hastened to the very summit, and on my clapping my 
hands, shouting, or making any loud noise, they instantly 
dropped from their lofty position to the very ground, and on 
my running up expecting to find the creatures killed, and to 
secure the carcases, they would dart away unhurt, to repeat 
the same feat at some adjacent tree. The Norwegian squir- 
rels are brown in summer, and gray in winter ; in the latter 
state the skin is the e( petit gris 11 of commerce, and is much 
worn by cardinals in Italy. Linnaeus, in his Lapland Fauna, 
calls the animal Sciurus vulgaris. 

We found the river Iby but a stream, through which I could 
wade in many parts ; its appearance is such as delights the 
angler, nor does this promise prove deceitful, for it abounds 
in salmon of large size and excellent quality. It flows, at the 



TO THE NORTHERN PARTS OF NORWAY. 



75 



part where I saw it, through a desert of sand and stones, 
among* which grew immense quantities of Tamarisk bushes, 
and a few Willows, which I gathered. 

There was nothing here to shoot, except the Squirrels and 
some Ducks, with a few Ripa. Two beautiful Salmon were 
purchased, weighing about thirty pounds each, for which we 
paid three oris, altogether, two shillings and threepence of 
English money: they were just taken out of the water, and 
almost immediately consigned to the pot, and when eaten 
with the best of all sauce, (hunger always excepted, — -though 
in our case added,) which is the water in which the fish are 
boiled, they proved most excellent. 

Our female friends had set out before us for Bossikop, on 
foot, a distance of about three Norske miles ; they do not 
mind trifles here, and are admirable pedestrians, as I can aver. 
Our beds were quickly prepared, consisting only of ill-prepared 
skins, smelling far from pleasantly, and with a greasy feeling 
which proved still more disagreeable. Most of them were the 
skins of Deer, but it was my lot to have one that had graced 
a sheep's back, and to which still adhered a great quantity of 
the prickly leaves of Juniper and Crowberry, and nothing was 
interposed between this couch and the floor ; moreover, I had 
to repose, saving this skin, " simplex munditiis," for I was wet 
even to my shirt with wading, and had to take every thing off 
to dry. However, as hunger is the most relishing sauce, so is 
weariness, I believe the best opiate ; and after smoking one 
or two pipes of tobacco to drive away the mosquitoes, I soon 
fell sound asleep. Our guide, Nicolai, was almost blinded 
with these insects. Often as I have been mortified by the ob- 
struction which they have proved to my sketching, there is 



76 



JOURNAL OF A TOUR 



# yet a time when the attacks of the mosquitoes are still more 
trying to the patience ; this is, when after taking the needful 
precautions for ensuring a night's rest,— fumigating the room 
well — closing "doors and windows — killing every wing of them 
that can be seen — you lie down dog-tired, and just feel your- 
self dropping happily and securely asleep, when presently, one 
vile insect, which had eluded your researches, comes buzz, 
buzz, buzzing around, and after many airy circles, settles 
upon your face. You cautiously extricate your hand from 
the bed-clothes, and with an aim which you flatter yourself 
to be infallible, smite upon your own countenance. Nothing 
is heard for a while after the sound of the concussion on your 
cheek, and you congratulate yourself that the annoyance is 
exterminated ; — but no,— he is not dead, — he returns to the 
charge, and so matters go on, till either the mosquito is killed 
after a long chase, or he is permitted to suck his fill and drop 
off. Imagine then the plague of perhaps a thousand of these 
insects in a bed-room, where they neither can be destroyed 
nor caught. The only plan, under such circumstances, is to 
smoke till you fairly fall asleep, and become insensible to their 
stings ; but the sight of one's own face in the looking-glass 
next morning, is far from gratifying. 

August 8th, Monday. — On rising, a bunch of Juniper was 
burnt in the room to purify the air after sleeping in it, and 
when we had taken our breakfast, the party divided to scour 
the woods in different directions, Mr. Christy, Mr. Woodfall, 
and myself, going one way, while Dr Greisdale and Captain 
Moyse took another route. The guide accompanied us, pro- 
mising to bring us to a good place for Tioure, and he carried 
his Lure with him. As this instrument (of music ?) is seldom 



Tab. IV. 




Mi s c ell ane ous S ketclie s 



TO THE 



NORTHERN 



PARTS OF NORWAY. 



77 



seen so far north, 1 was pleased with the opportunity of exam- 
ining- and listening to an article of national interest, of which 
I had heard and read so much. It is a wooden trumpet, 
about four feet and three quarters long, formed of two hollow 
pieces of Birch, neatly and accurately fitted to each other, and 
then wound over, for the whole of its length, with slips of 
willow. (See Plate IV .fig. I.) The use to which the Lure 
is usually applied is that of calling the cattle, or keeping a 
party together, and for the latter purpose it had been brought 
in the present instance. As for me, however, I had no fear on 
that score, for I always carried a pocket-compass, and wher- 
ever I went took note of some land-mark that lay in my course, 
such as a tuft of willows or peculiarly shaped tree, or some 
rock or stream ; by these means I never lost my way when 
left in a strange place, without a guide. But to return to my 
subject. Dr. Clarke's representation of the Lure is correct 
enough ; but not so his description of its notes, in which he 
imagined he found something of music. A beautiful girl is 
portrayed in the frontispiece to his volume on Norway, &c, 
blowing on the Lure, the sound of which, he said, was very 
fine ; but it is difficult to imagine anything so harsh, dissonant, 
and barbarous, as the notes of this instrument, while the act 
of blowing it, which requires a considerable exertion, puffs 
out the cheeks like a figure of Boreas, the eyes start from the 
sockets and become bloodshot, while the whole face and neck 
assume a deep scarlet hue, all which, as may be supposed, are 
no improvement to female beauty. Had I heard the noise 
without knowing whence it proceeded, I should certainly have 
slipped a bullet into my gun, and gone in search of the Wild 
beast j or taken to my heels, which is just as likely. 



78 



JOURNAL OF A TOUR 



I recollect, on one occasion, when shooting alone in the 
thickest part of the great Alten forest, while 1 was looking out 
for Rtpa, and perchance a Tioure, in a place where the brush- 
wood was very dense, and afforded, as I was at that moment 
thinking, a very probable haunt for Bears, I heard a rustling 
sound, evidently caused by some bulky creature, which, to- 
gether with a mysterious kind of snorting, gave me the idea 
that a bear was close by. Much as I had often wished for 
an encounter with Bruin, coming thus suddenly and single- 
handed within a few paces of what I thought was so large and 
formidable an animal, I must confess startled me terribly ; 
my heart, to use the familiar expression, "jumped into my 
mouth," and sank again below level, at the recollection that I 
had only small shot in my gun ; however, I slipped a bullet 
into one of the barrels, and summoning all my courage, went 
slowly and cautiously forward, with my gun on full cock, when, 
carefully pushing aside the brushwood, I heard, to my disap- 
pointment, and, perhaps, somewhat to my relief, the tinkle of 
a bell, which at once explained the true nature of the cause of 
my alarm ; this was no other than a mare and its foal, which 
had strayed much farther than usual, and I am only at a loss 
to account for my not having heard the bell sooner. These 
animals are generally belled, like the wedder sheep in Eng- 
land, and the collars to which these appendages hang are fre- 
quently very pretty and tastefully decorated ; the Cows and 
Reindeer are also similarly provided, the object being to keep 
away the Wolves and Bears. (See Plate IV. fig. 2.) 

When we had been starting from Kaafiord on this excur- 
sion, Mr. Crowe told us we had no chance of meeting with 
any Capercailzie, and it was therefore with the greater 



TO THE NORTHERN PARTS OF NORWAY. 



79 



pleasure that I saw a fine cock bird rise, though at a consid- 
erable distance. 1 failed of getting near it, but my hopes 
were encouraged by the quantity of excrement, some quite 
fresh, which these birds had dropped under the trees, and just 
as Mr, Christy stooped to gather a plant, one of these noble 
creatures sprung from under his very fingers. The guide, 
however, assured me that at this season of the year, it was 
hopeless to search for the Capercailzie, as they sit so close, 
that only a good setter-dog could flush them ; but in this 
assertion the guide somewhat exaggerated the real truth ; for 
though certainly very unwilling to take wing, we sometimes 
put up an old Tioure, who, flying to a short distance, gener- 
ally perches, if not shot first, and keeps an anxious eye on her 
young, which are running about and trying to conceal them- 
selves under dead and fallen branches or long grass. Some- 
times a noble cock bird would rise from off some tree, making 
a startling noise with its wings as it speeds through the 
branches and twigs that impede its progress. The flight of 
these birds is very strong, and they proceed a considerable 
distance before alighting again, — I, of course, allude to their 
habits only at this season, for at different periods of the year, 
they vary. A Katydgle, which I shot as he was preening his 
feathers on a dead Fir tree, made amends for the one which 
had so provokingly flown away, and I took care to ascertain 
that he was' really defunct before I bagged him. We also saw 
a Hare, but the momentary glimpse did not suffice to convince 
me that the species is the same as ours. Many hours did we 
spend in tramping about the woods with very little success. 
The present season is the very worst in the whole year for 
birds ; a little later or earlier, they are common and easily 



80 



JOURNAL OF A TOUR 



procured ; but now, having young ones, they hide themselves. 
In fact, no one thinks of shooting during this month, though I 
still believe, from the indications I observed, that there must be 
many, and that with the help of an active dog, I might have 
been much more successful than I was. The only birds 
which occurred in any great plenty, were Magpies, Ravens, 
and Hooded Crows; the first are protected by superstition, 
which makes it unlucky to kill them, while 1 could seldom 
manage to approach a Raven near enough to shoot it. 

We returned to Iby after a tramp of three Norske miles, 
during which we had not obtained much, not even any 
Willows that we did not already possess. Glad were we to 
rest our fagged bones awhile, and roeke ane pipe tabak, to 
keep off the mosquitoes. The remains of our yesterday's 
salmon were attacked, and before we had half finished, Dr. 
Greisdale and Captain Moyse came to the rescue of their 
share of the fish, which we the more readily gave up, as they 
had brought some game. We then set off for Bossikop, 
through a very fine country, where 1 managed to fill my game- 
bag. We passed a place where Tar had been made for home 
consumption; it resembled a lime-kiln; the wood is rammed 
in at the top, and being set on fire is not allowed to break out 
into flame, but kept smouldering, when by this progress of 
destructive distillation the tar flows out through a spout 
below. 

It often struck me, while passing through those tracts of 
country, that they must bear some resemblance to the "dismal 
Pine Swamps" of North America ; an idea in which I was 
subsequently confirmed by a person who was well acquainted 
with the latter country, and who observed, on seeing some of 



TO THE NORTHERN PARTS OF NORWAY. 



81 



my sketches, that the points of similarity were very remarka- 
ble. Wary walking was needful here : often were we on the 
point of sticking- fast in deep holes of vegetable mud, insidi- 
ously covered with the limbs and branches of Firs, while 
numerous stumps of the same kind of tree, overgrown with 
moss, often proved too rotten to sustain our weight, and down 
we went, the mud squirting about on each side of us. The 
curved toes of my Komagers several times threw me head- 
long into some slough, by catching hold of crooked and tough 
roots. 

I ought to have sooner described these Komagers, an article 
of dress much used here, indeed, invariably by the natives, and 
found so comfortable and convenient by strangers, that they 
frequently adopt them also. There are two kinds, of Koma- 
gers,— Winter and Summer Komager boots and shoes ; the 
former,— winter Komagers, are called Ska 11- Komagers ; these 
are shoes, made of deer-skin at a season wJien the hair is 
short, close and stiff, leggins of the same material being worn 
with them. The Summer Komagers' may be either boots or 
shoes. I always used the former, reaching above my knees, 
— formed of leather ; there are no soles nor heels to either 
kind ; ] do not mean to say that the foot is exposed below, 
but that the upper and lower parts are of the same thickness 
throughout, and indeed formed in one piece. They are much 
too large to admit of the foot only, but it is customary to 
stuff them with Sena grass (Carex sylvatica.) which being 
rubbed soft in the hand, is laid in equally and neatly in all 
parts. The Komager-band fastens them round the ankle, and 
no stocking is worn. It is customary to grease the outsides 
of the Komagers, to render them impervious to the wet. The 

L 



82 JOURNAL OF A TOUR 

curve at the point is adapted for catching 1 into the strap of the 
Skie,* or snow-skaits, which I now proceed to describe. 
These are flat pieces of Birch-wood, nine feet eight inches 
long, (such at least is the measurement of a pair which I 
possess, and I saw many even longer,) by about four inches 
broad ; remarkably thin and light, turned up at both ends, 
especially in the front. Some are soled with seals' skin, or 
the skin of the deer's leg, to prevent their slipping back when 
ascending a hill side. The guiding pole is about six feet long, 
with a small wheel within four inches of the point, which when 
stuck into the snow enables the skaiter to turn, regulating 
the too rapid progress, guiding to one side or another, or 
serving as a weapon, for which purpose it is often shod with 
an iron spike. It is astonishing how these people avoid dash- 
ing against stumps of trees when rushing along with the 
speed which these Skies afford. The rate, however, at which 
they can go, has been much exaggerated, and the drawing 
in De Capell Brooke's work, representing the Skielohoere 
descending a steep hill-side, is certainly a stretch of fancy ; 
such a feat being, I was often assured, quite impracticable, 
an angle of ten or twelve degrees being the utmost that could 
with any safety be attempted, for a slope greater than this 
would give the Skiedor (Skaiter) such an immense velocity of 
descent that he would almost immediately lose all power of 
guiding himself out of the way of dangers. 

If a Gamme (Norwegian hut) or any rounded obstruction 
lies in his way, and is covered with snow, the Skiedor speeds 
his course over it, and instead of descending immediately on 



* The li in this word is pronounced like our h. 



TO THE NORTHERN PARTS OF NORWAY. 



83 



the other side, the impetus shoots him several yards off, before 
alighting again. There is a Gamme at Kaafiord, situated 
on a gentle slope of a hill, over which it is a favourite amuse- 
ment of the Skiedors to dart. (See Plate IV. Jig. 4.) 

August 9th, Tuesday. — Messrs. Christy, Walker, Gait, 
and myself, — the rest of the party having gone to Kaafiord, 
— proceeded to-day to climb some of the mountains, taking 
with us the postmaster as a sort of guide, and a boy, by name 
Cornelius, to carry our provender. 

The scenery through which we passed, was of a highly 
varied character, level and fertile, precipitous and rocky, deep 
woods and extensive marshes, the latter filled with tussocks 
of Moltebaer, I observed a Snipe, the flight of which was un- 
like that of ours, but the distance was too great to enable me 
to ascertain the species. Near the summit of the mountain, 
two Eagles sat perched on a rock, screaming most vocifer- 
ously ; on seeing us they rose and whirled around, changing 
their cry into a short shrieking bark, but they took care to 
keep a respectful distance. 

The dog which I had taken with me killed three Lemmings 
(Mus Lemming,) the Lemond of the Norwegians; but he 
quite destroyed their pretty striped black and brown skins. 
These animals are by no means scarce here, and what is re- 
lated respecting the propensity of the Reindeer to eat them, 
I consider to be highly probable from what I saw of the latter 
creature's habits. The Postmaster, and several other indi- 
viduals, assured me that they had seen the sheep eat Lem- 
mings, and that after so doing they always grew poor and 
shortly died, so that as soon as a sheep was observed to do 
this it was immediately killed before it should become worth- 



*4 



JOURNAL OF A TOUR 



less. The Deer will often strike the Lemmings with their 
fore-feet, and bite them, but no person with whom I conversed 
npon that point could positively assert to his having seen the 
Deer actually masticate and swallow these creatures. The 
Lemmings appear to live chiefly in marshy spots, in high 
grounds, especially where the Moltebaer abounds, as I ob- 
served them repeatedly diving into holes under the tufts of this 
plant; and their favourite resorts are always high on the 
hills, thus accounting for the expression which the Norwegians 
used when telling me that " the Lemmings come down upon 
them in great bands." 

We gathered large quantities of the Craneberry, ( Vaccin- 
ium Oxycoccos,) Myrbaer of the natives, the fruit of last year 
being still quite good, preserved by the snow, whilst that of 
the present season was fully ripe. The " Vaccinium Myrtil- 
lus" (Blaebaer) and " V. uliginosuni'* (Odon,) with the " V. 
vitis idaea" (Lingon) and Krakebaer grew in great profusion, 
their berries having been covered by the snow. 

I soon quitted my botanizing and entomologizing friends, 
and went in search of the picturesque, which 1 shortly found 
in such perfection as quite to baffle my poor attempts to de- 
pict it. One spot was eminently grand ; it was a deep ravine 
or gulley, at the bottom of which ran a stream ; this rent in 
the rock came to an abrupt termination, and the water shot 
beyond it in a beautiful fall. After walking along the side for 
about half a mile, I reached a spot, where, after some little 
trouble, I made my way to the bottom, and saw two perpen- 
dicular precipices of Greenstone rock rising abruptly on each 
side of me to a height of at least fifty feet, increasing as I de- 
scended, till the elevation might be full seventy feet, and in 



TO THE NORTHERN PARTS OF NORWAY. 



85 



some places almost closing over my head. The bottom was 
entirely filled with Angelica Archangelica, a plant of which, 
by this time, I had grown as fond as the Norwegians ; so, 
selecting the tenderest shoots of this delicious vegetable, called 
here Myrstut, J sat down to sketch, and kept munching all 
the while, and then crammed my game-bag with a stock of it 
to take home to my friends. 

The people of this country are well aware of the valuable 
stomachic properties which reside in the warm aromatic stem 
of the Archangelica, and eagerly gather it wherever they can 
find it. Those who have only tasted it in the candied state, 
cannot have any more idea of its delightfully pungent and 
aromatic flavour than as if they ate a cabbage stalk, nor of 
the impulse it gives to digestion by accelerating the peristaltic 
motion. 

The Cetraria Islandica (Iceland Moss,) grows plentifully 
here, and is used by the people, boiled to a jelly, for the cure 
of consumption, which complaint is, however, not by any 
means common. 

A Doctor is so rare and important a personage in this 
" divisa dal mondo, ultima Thule," that the poor people are 
glad to make use of any herbs and simples which they deem 
efficacious in removing their maladies ; and it can excite no 
surprise to observe that in the extraordinary and indiscriminate 
catalogue of their Materia Medica i many substances find a 
place which are not only wholly inert, but often eminently dele- 
terious in the case of the particular disease for which they are 
prescribed. Few, however, comparatively speaking, " are the 
ills to which 11 Norwegian (e flesh is heir. 11 For almost all of 
these, not even excepting the acute inflammatory attacks, 



86 



JOURNAL OF A TOUR 



Camphor mixed with Com brandy is an approved specific ; 
and of the former remedy they will sometimes eat a lump as 
big- as one's thumb. Assafoztida, again, they hold in high 
admiration, and the same is the case with every drug which 
possesses a rank flavour and disgusting* smell. 

Common as the Itch is in Iceland, and is said to be here, I 
never saw a case of it among the Norwegians, who are affected, 
however, with a nearly allied disease, a kind of Leprosy ; 
but unfortunately the late Doctor at the Kaafiord works 
is so destitute of curiosity, that all my endeavours to extract 
from him any information respecting the national diseases 
were completely baffled. For the two or three last years an 
epidemic, perhaps contagious, gastric fever, has raged at Kaa- 
fiord, where it has carried off a large number of the miners, 
and two successive English doctors. In the excellent hospital 
built by Mr. Crowe for the accommodation of the sick people 
belonging to the works, there was not a single patient during 
my stay. 

In submitting to operations the people are particularly 
courageous, and cannot bear to be thought cowards. I once 
saw a Lapland woman, who, on having an incision made in 
her hand to extract a needle, fearful lest any cry should escape 
her, crammed her mouth with her shawl. 

On returning to Bossikop we passed by a Laplanders 
Gamme, on the roof of which lay some lazy and surly-looking 
dogs ; these animals in their physiognomy much resemble the 
shepherd's Collie in Scotland, but the hair is long and very 
black. Madame Klerck had a very good one, and I have 
since regretted that it never occurred to me to make a sketch 
of him ; he was a very attached animal, and by no means 



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87 



deficient in courage, though his age was considerable. Most 
of these dogs, however, are not complaisant to strangers, but 
as the owner of one said, they are " meiget diver," (very 
sagacious.) 

When we reached home, Madame Klerck treated us to a 
very favourite Norske dish ; this consisted of stewed Rein- 
deers' tongues, sliced, and sauced with a great deal of butter, 
sugar, and preserved cherries, with spice ! We could not 
relish it. The natives are particularly fond of sugar, the 
liberal addition of which spoils their best dishes, as well as 
their teeth, so that a perfectly good set is comparatively rare, 
and I have seen the faces of some of the prettiest young ladies 
rendered quite unpleasant by a range of black and broken 
stumps. Instead of butter, cream and sugar mixed together 
are used for fish sauce, and into many such heresies in the art 
of cookery does their inordinate fondness for sugar lead the 
Norwegians. Stewed meats are most in vogue. I must do 
the people, however, the justice to say, that the utmost nicety 
of cleanliness is observed in all their culinary operations, 
which steam-packet cooks would do well to copy. Nor do I 
ever recollect having failed in making most hearty meals. 

And now that I am on the subject of eatables, I may speak 
of the Gammel Oust, literally " Old Cheese," which is pre- 
pared in a peculiar manner, and much prized for its piquant 
flavour, which considerably resembles very high and ripe Stil- 
ton. Another kind of cheese is made, very hard, with sugar 
—a peculiarly disagreeable and incongruous compound ; and 
still another is the Reindeer milk cheese, which is like a most 
ordinary Scotch Dnnlop cheese, tough as leather and sour 
withal ; its chief use, I should think, is to afford a large quail- 



88 



JOURNAL OF A TOUR 



tily of oily matter, which is a very efficacious external appli- 
cation in cases of frost-bites, for, indeed, I hardly know who 
could eat it, its smell is so very rank, and the very sight of it 
would make one think of indigestion and nightmare. This is 
not, however, a Norske, but a Lapland edible, or rather 
inedible. 

August 10th, Wednesday. — This morning every one went 
whither he listed, and no two of us took the same course. A 
couple of patients applied to me for advice, one who, for sore 
eyes, had used Hoffman's Drops, a favourite kind of universal 
medicine ; and another was afflicted with Rheumatism. The 
Lapp remedy for the latter complaint is a moxa of Boletus 
igniarim, called Toule, together with a dose of Corn-brandy, 
pepper, and gunpowder, taken internally. 

After visiting these patients I bent my steps to the Alten 
river, and, mindful of the disaster that had there befallen me, 
approached as closely as prudence would allow to the unlucky 
spot, where I sat down, and endeavoured, by making a new 
sketch of its brilliant scenery, to repair my former loss. 
Thence to Kobberstadt, of which 1 took a view, as well as of 
a cleared piece of ground in the wood, where a house was 
built, in drawing which I reclined on a carpet of Rubus arcti- 
cus, whose lovely flowers covered all the ground. Lastly, my 
poor pencil was taxed to represent the beautiful valley at the 
Sandfalls, (mentioned in my note for Thursday, August 3rd,) 
but the more I saw of this exquisite spot, the more did I find 
both pen in description, and pencil in delineation, fail of con- 
veying any idea of its perfections. Here I discovered a fine 
echo, which I pleased myself by hearing repeat after me, 
quite distinctly, my three names, and as it greatly mellowed 



TO THE NORTHERN PARTS OF NORWAY. 



89 



and sweetened each sound, I sat and sketched, singing and 
shouting the while without fear of interrupting or being inter- 
rupted. I hardly ever enjoyed myself more, every thing was 
so beautiful, but I could not help feeling humbled too, when 1 
looked at the miserable, weak, and dingy sketch, and then 
gazed again on the grand features and lovely hues of the in- 
comparable original. It was not till the sun began to redden 
every object with his gorgeous setting tints that I thought of 
returning home, so long did I linger on this delightful spot. 

On rejoining my companions, I was told that a Finnish 
Bastuen or Vapour bath was not far off, and as we were all 
desirous of visiting one, we sent orders that it should be heated 
expressly for ourselves, and taking a little Flibbertygibbet of 
a boy for our guide, we made our way thither without any 
delay. The path led through some beautiful scenery, and 
while matters were preparing within, I made a sketch of the 
exterior. The boy conducted us into the house of the pro- 
prietor of the bath, where some Filbunke was set before us. 
In this fine dry climate, I have no doubt that this food, which 
is sour clotted cream, eaten by people of a robust constitution 
and hard-working habits, may be very wholesome, and with 
the addition of a little sugar sifted over it, as it is usually 
taken, I found it by no means unpalatable. In the present 
instance the saccharine accompaniment was wanting, and no- 
thing could be droller than to observe the keen attention and 
sly countenance with which our roguish guide scrutinized the 
strangers, and watched who did and who did not like the 
Filbunke. The wry faces, made by some of us, elicited from 
him loud shouts and screams of laughter. The pans out of 
which it is eaten, resemble the inverted bottoms of tubs, being 

M 



90 



JOURNAL OF A TOUR 



about four or five inches deep, sixteen in breadth at the bottom, 
and thirteen or fourteen at the top. It is conveyed to the 
mouth with short wooden spoons. {See Plate IV. Fig. 3.) 
The lad himself being* hungry, sat down to a banquet of rye- 
cake and raw salmon ! Whether the little fellow thought this 
food was too good to be offered to us, or whether he judged 
that if we made grimaces at Filbunke, we should turn quite 
sick with uncooked fish, I cannot tell : at all events he prof- 
fered us none. So 1 made my modest request for a small bit, 
and when that was despatched, I asked for more, and cut my- 
self a bolder slice, and certainly did not find it bad eating. 

1 am inclined to think that if raw salmon were put into a 
person's mouth with his eyes shut, he would pass no unfavour- 
able opinion upon it, and by custom it might by some be pre- 
ferred to cooked fish, as is the case here. No other of the 
party, however, could be induced to overcome their innate 
disgust at eating what was raw, and freshly taken out of the 
river ; but though I own, that to my taste, the boiled salmon 
is still preferable, I can easily imagine that habit would soon 
reconcile me to the other. The rye-cake was good, and some- 
what similar to a very well made Scottish potato bannock, 
and rather sweeter. Of the Norwegian Missen brdd, (bread 
of misery or famine,) of which one hears so much, I saw no- 
thing- except a specimen preserved as a curiosity ; and I am 
happy to find that the frequency of communication now exist- 
ing between Russia and these remote and Arctic parts of 
Norway, precludes the danger of that dreadful scarcity of 
better aliment which alone could compel the starving popula- 
tion to have recourse to such a wretched substitute for the 
" staff of life." Linnaeus must have been fearfully hungry 



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91 



to have said of Missen brod, " Panis hie albus est, dulcis et 
gratissimus, praasertim recens. ,, — (Vid. Fl. Lapp. p. 250.) 

By this time the bath was ready, and Mr. Gait, without 
hesitation, (for he had been in Norway before, and knew the 
manners and customs of the people perfectly, and generally 
acted as our interpreter,) stripped himself, though there were 
women in the room, who took it quite unconcernedly, as 
a matter of course. When he returned, he had to sit in 
the same condition until a triple perspiration had come out, 
and still the females kept their places and their countenances ; 
the same was the case when Mr. Walker's turn arrived. Now, 
as this bath only admitted one person at a time, and was be- 
ginning to get cool, at least cooler than was considered right, 
it had to be reheated, and orders were given to make it hotter 
than on the two former occasions, so I expected to be almost 
stewed alive. In the interval I made a sketch of the interior 
of the room, when in came a young female, and seated herself. 
J began to hope she would soon take herself off, when the old 
lady who had charge of the bath sent to inform me that it was 
waiting, so, doing as others had done, I undressed, and seizing 
Mr. Christy's little dog, Prenez, in my arms, scampered with 
him to the bath, being curious to see what effect the heat would 
have upon the animal. As soon as I entered 1 verily thought that 
suffocation was inevitable, and I sunk down upon the earthen 
floor, when instantly a copious perspiration burst from every 
pore, and trickled down in large drops. The entrance of the 
old woman made me start off, and jump up a kind of ladder to 
a shelf or platform, covered with birch twigs, where 1 lav down, 
coughing violently from the effects of the smoke, which almost 
blinded me ; then the good lady took a branch of birch, witli the 



92 



JOURNAL OF A TOUR 



leaves on, and clipping it in hot water, handed it to ine that I 
might flog myself withal, which I did till I was tired, the heat 
meanwhile being so painfully intense as almost to bring blisters 
on my skin, the thermometer standing about 140° ; however, 
I flagellated myself till I was as red as a boiled lobster, the 
woman all the time pouring water on the charcoal embers, 
and creating a dreadful steam and heat. After remaining in 
this elevated situation about fifteen or eighteen minutes, 1 was 
called down, and got into a narrow tub of warm water, in 
which I stood up to my knees, in imminent danger of capsizing 
it, while my antiquated attendant washed me all over, poking 
her fingers into my eyes and ears more particularly. Glad was 
I when she told me she had done, for the vapour of charcoal 
was quite painful to my eyes, and made them, though fast 
closed, water very copiously. Back, then, I scudded to the 
house, where I sat for some time in a profuse perspiration ; 
it was, indeed, idle to think of putting on any article of clothing 
while in such a state, for half a minute would have rendered it 
as wet as if dipped in the river. 

But enough upon this subject. — Drunkenness is a very com- 
mon vice, though not so prevalent among the Quans as the 
Norwegians, and more especially the Laplanders. When the 
latter, who are very much addicted to liquor, get pisk (tipsy,) 
they hardly ever fight ; but if they do, nothing can be more 
ludicrous than to witness their faces, swollen out with rage ; — 
they bite their lips, — frown hideously, and strutting up to 
each other with a diabolical scowl, only look most laughably 
mock-heroic. Presently they rush together, clasping one 
another in their arms, while they deal most innocently furious 
cuffs upon their enemies' thickly clothed and invulnerable 



TO THE NORTHERN PARTS OF NORWAY. 



93 



backs. I once witnessed a scene of this kind, and thought I 
must have expired with laughter ; the more so, as the Lapp 
spectators stood almost petrified with horror at the affray. 

Though these people all carry knives, I never saw or heard 
of one being drawn, either in anger or self-defence, against a 
human creature. Generally speaking, their drunken fits give 
them a peculiarly sociable and friendly turn of mind. On 
Saturdays or Sunday evenings, after six, I have noticed them 
sitting in knots of five or six men and women, hugging and 
kissing each other, as fuddled as fiddlers, with the Corn brandy 
or Rum bottle ever and anon circulating between these bursts 
of affection. 

But to return to where I left off : Mr. Christy found the 
heat of the steam bath so uncongenial to his taste, that he had 
to call out " ikke mere, 11 (hold, enough,) to his tormentor, 
and then ran out and hurried back to the house, vowing he 
would never enter such a place again. For my own part, 
though I took in the dog by way of experiment, I was too 
much occupied with my own feelings to pay any attention to 
his, nor did I notice him till 1 saw him running after us as we 
returned to Bossikop, where, after partaking of a rather late 
supper, with a voracious appetite, I went to bed to sleep more 
soundly than I ever did before. 

August 11th, Thursday. — This morning was occupied in 
finishing sketches, skinning birds which 1 had shot, and pack- 
ing up willows and live plants. 

In the afternoon I went to take a view of Bossikop, which 
I wished to present to my hospitable hostess, Madame Klerck, 
from whom we were immediately to part, and when I came 
back, I found that I had been sent for to visit a patient. The 



94 



JOURNAL OF A TOUR 



sick lady was a friend of Madame Klerck's, who immediately 
offered to accompany me, so off we trudged together. The 
walk was indeed a beautiful one ; we crossed the Alten river 
and reached the dwelling of the invalide, who had just been 
confined, and was trying to cure herself by Hoffman's Drops. 
Our return was by a different way from what we came by, 
and led us near the spot where some days previously I had 
found the KarV s-skefter ; after considerable searching I got 
abundance of this stately plant, but the flowers were all cut 
and blackened by the frosts of the recent Aim-nachts. Here, 
too, were many fine Willows, which we stowed in some 
travelling baskets that we had purchased. 

After supper we all proceeded to Mr. Vendal's store, to look 
over his curiosities, and buy some little matters; among them 
was a beautiful box of Birch-bark, very neat, and rendered 
capable of holding water by being formed of the entire cir- 
cumference of the tree's bark. Also a pretty butter-tub, which 
shut by an ingenions contrivance of great simplicity, — on the 
middle of the lid is fixed a pin, on which revolves a bar that 
slips into two ears on the sides of the box. (See Plate IV. 
Fig. 3.) 

August 12th, Friday. — This morning we went to obtain a 
boat and boatmen, which being engaged, we took leave of our 
kind hostess, who had entertained us so hospitably, and whom 
I felt no small regret at leaving. She gave each of us a small 
sprig of Forget-me-not, which I shall ever preserve as a me- 
mento of some of the happiest hours in my life. Some little 
attentions which I had paid her, when she was unwell, had 
made a strong impression on her grateful heart, and she was 
urgent in her entreaties that we would come back another 



to the northern- 



parts OF NORWAY. 



95 



year. Finally, she took leave of us with the kindly wish, 
(doomed, however, like many such in this world, not to be 
realized,) "lykpaa Reise," (a pleasant, orprosperous journey.) 

On arriving at Kaafiord, we were officiallv informed that 
the Harriet would sail on the morrow ; but private intelligence 
assured us she could not be ready for sea before Tuesday ! 
And now how did we regret these delays, and our too ready 
belief of the Captain's first statements ! Had we known this 
before, we might have seen Rafsbottn, Storvig. — have easily 
visited the North Cape, and have taken far more distant ex- 
cursions into the interior. But it availed nothing to lament 
the Captain's indecision, and our own credulity : so wishing 
to make the most of the time that yet remained, I bethought 
me that many objects in the immediate neighbourhood were 
well worthy of being sketched, and according to an axiom 
which my friends at home have tried hard to drill into me, 
that u a work begun is half finished," I started off to take a 
view of the Kaafiord works and surrounding country. Ac- 
companied by Mr. Crowe, to whom this subject was of course 
peculiarly interesting, I sought out, with a telescope, a spot 
upon the other side of the Fiord, whence this more experienced 
person assured me that the best general coup d' ceil could be 
obtained, and having managed to scull myself across in a boat, 
I climbed a pinnacle of rock, and presently commenced opera- 
tions — and so did the mosquitoes. Accuracy, I thought, was 
the first point in a panoramic representation; so, fearing that 
the distance which lay between, might cause me to commit 
blunders, I examined every object with the telescope before 
putting it down with my pencil, and this, though a tedious 
process, during which the mosquitoes were peculiarly annoy- 
ing, I found the very best plan that I could have adopted. 



96 



JOURNAL OF A TOUR 



August 1 3th, Saturday.— The whole morning- was devoted 
to completing my drawing. After dinner, at which we had been 
promised the banquet of a stewed Colt, that special delicacy 
of this country, (but whereof we were baulked by our Cap- 
tain, who, between a dislike to eating what he called Carrion, 
and the temptation of making a good bargain, purchased off 
the animal for three dollars,) i went to witness an execution 
of justice. The culprit was a Norske-man, who had, while 
pisk, attempted to purloin three shirts from the store. Being 
detected, he was sentenced to receive twenty lashes, which 
were accordingly given with the rope's-end, and in the ten- 
derest manner possible, so that if the offender's feelings were 
not more hurt than his flesh, I fear there was little good done. 
Mr. Aasberg indignantly remarked, " an English sailor would 
stand that whipping for a single glass of grog adding, as 
he shook the stout flexible tube of his pipe, with which he has 
been seen to execute summary justice on occasions, — "it is a 
shame!" We supped with Mr. Aasberg, whose hospitable 
house was indeed always open to us, and at whose table we 
often enjoyed ourselves in the evenings. His only son was an 
invalide, in whom I was much interested. 

August 14th, Sunday. — Accompanied by our friend Cap- 
tain Thomas, Mr. Christy and I went in a large boat to 
Talvig, with several other persons. Besides seeing the place, 
we were to stand god-fathers to a child, and Madame Len- 
ning, whom Brooke speaks of as his " fair companion," and 
who with her husband accompanied him in one of his excur- 
sions, was to be the god-mother. As it was Sunday I left my 
gun and sketch-book behind. Talvig, as 1 think to have be- 
fore mentioned, is the nearest church to Kaafiord. We went 



TO THE NORTHERN PARTS OF NORWAY. 



97 



first to the house of Mr. Norberg, the merchant, and thence 
to church. 

The edifice is built in a style very similar to that of Ham- 
merfest, but is larger and handsomer ; service was going on 
when we entered, and though of course we did not understand 
it, still we could catch here and there a few words or perhaps 
sentences. The minister, arrayed in a black gown and stiff 
frill, stood before the altar, on which was placed a representa- 
tion of the crucifixion between two large candlesticks, contain- 
ing huge gilded wax candles, 1 cannot call them tapers, for 
they were much thicker than my arm, and he sang or spoke 
the service, in which he was sometimes joined by the choristers, 
and sometimes dolefully chanted it alone with a most lugu- 
brious voice. After a good deal of this, there was an interval, 
the clergyman and congregation went out, and immediately 
the bells struck up a most unpleasant chime, which my little 
friend, Matthias Griintwyt, who had joined our party, gave 
me to understand was intended to give joyous signification of 
three weddings about to be solemnized, and eight children to 
be baptized. It would seem that these hyperborean latitudes, 
though the contrary has been affirmed, are very conducive to 
philoprogenitiveness, and if they continue so, I fear the North- 
men will, ere long, become too numerous for their own country 
to hold them, and again overrun the more fertile lands of their 
southern neighbours. 

Meanwhile I wandered about the neatly kept burying-ground, 
which was very full of tombs ; Matthias pointing out to me 
those of several families in the neighbourhood, several of 
which were strewed with flowers wound into wreaths or tied 
in bunches. Many plants were cultivated upon the graves,, 

N 



1)8 



JOURNAL OF A TOUR 



chiefly the Forget-me-not ; the latter grew very abundantly in 
Madame Klerck's burying-ground, where her husband lay, 
and as I stooped over the rails to gather one of them, I ac- 
cidentally pulled a specimen which had two heads of flowers 
upon the same stalk, one of them fresh and blooming, the 
other nipped and withered. While I stood with the plant in 
my hand, thinking of this coincidence, the bells stopped, and 
Matthias gave me a hint to come into the church. 

The women took one side of the building and the men the 
other, each party occupying a separate pew. Here I witnessed 
a scene which, according to our English notions, was some- 
what scandalous, the wedding of a couple, having four grown 
up children, who came to see papa and mamma married. 

Another woman presented herself to be joined in like man- 
ner, who was of such notorious character as to be commonly 
called by a name which I do not choose to repeat. If I 
remember rightly, these persons were Quans; but even 
without these two specimens, we must, unfortunately, 
admit that the morals of these people are by no means 
to be held up as a pattern. A sermon began this service, 
its subject taken from the service of the day, (the Scripture 
Lessons are the same as ours,) the text being our Lord's 
parable of the pharisee and publican. The name by which 
the latter was designated, struck me as doubtless convey- 
ing the meaning of the original more correctly than ours ; 
Tolder was the word, signifying collector of taxes or tolls. 
After the sermon came more chanting and singing, while, 
as in Scotland, the poor's bag was handed round for donations ; 
then the marriages were solemnized, and the children bap- 
tized. No interchange or giving of rings took place in the 



TO THE NORTHERN PARTS OF NORWAY. 



99 



former ceremony. The infants were swathed in cases, like 
little mummies, and the most expert surgeon might admire 
the neat way in which the Norske nurses rolled up their child- 
ren and encased them from head to foot in a regular roller 
bandage, the head only being protruded, which swings from 
side to side as it would drop of£ No wonder the poor things 
squalled so vociferously ! After seeing my godson baptized, 
and one of my names appended to his, I departed, leaving 
Matthias, who remained to be, confirmed by the minister, and 
went to Mr. Norberg's house, where dinner was preparing. 
At Talvig was the only stone building that had struck my 
notice, since arriving in Norway, and it was a distillery. So, 
thinking this would be a favourable opportunity for procur- 
ing corn-brandy really genuine, I spoke to Mr. Norberg, 
who got the best for me, both with and without the flavour 
of carraway-seed ; I also purchased a pair of Komager-bands 
and of beautifully white fur mittens. Mr. Christy bought an 
ancient Norwegian belt for the waist, formed of a series of 
gilt plates, rudely stamped and attached to a strip of leather. 
It is an object of great curiosity and considerable intrinsic 
value, bearing some similarity, though very far inferior in 
workmanship and taste, to an Icelandic one, which my father 
brought home thirty years ago. Here I saw, for the first 
time in Norway, rabbits, pigs, and tame ducks. 

The minister dined at Mr. Norberg's house : he was a 
very well informed and intelligent man, and as he sat by me, 
1 endeavoured to glean from him all the information I could, 
which he readily and fluently communicated in French, hav- 
ing apparently read much on various subjects. That of 
Phrenology amused him highly, and he argued with much 



100 



JOURNAL OF A TOUR 



acuteness upon this science with our Captain, who advocates 
it warmly to the greatest lengths. 

In the afternoon I went on board a Danish vessel to visit 
some of the crew, who were sick, and found that the Captain 
was acquainted with the J orgensen family in Copenhagen, 
the name of one of whom, J orgen J orgensen, must be familiar 
to those who know anything of Icelandic history. The son 
of an eminent watchmaker in Copenhagen, he became a 
sailor under the Danish flag ; then prisoner of war to England, 
where he broke his parole, and went in a merchant vessel to 
Iceland, usurping the government of it from the Danes, and 
constituting himself " His Excellency, the Lord High Ad- 
miral both by sea and land of the island of Iceland !" He 
again surrendered as a prisoner of war to the British flag ; 
quitting his dominions at the same time that my father left 
Iceland : saved the lives of my father and the crew of the 
vessel in which he sailed home, from destruction by fire ; 
committed crimes in England which twice condemned him 
to the gallows, and finally banished him for life. Such is the 
outline of the career of the man now alluded to, and with 
whom this Danish captain had sailed. Upon my informing 
him that J orgen J orgensen was alive and well in New South 
Wales, he said that his brother, now chronometer-maker to 
the king of Denmark, would be very sorry to hear it. 

As it was now time for us to return to Kaafiord, and the 
evening was very rainy, I wrapped myself up in my jyaesk, 
and drawing on my newly acquired mittens, made of white 
deer's skin, very pretty and soft, I bade defiance to wind and 
rain. The row homeward carried us near the shore, so as to 
avoid adverse winds. Close beside us rose a very high and 



TO THE NORTHERN PARTS OF NORWAY. JOI 

entirely perpendicular cliff, thickly clothed on the summit 
with Birch trees, and composed of alternate strata of lime- 
stone and clay-slate, with a slight dip towards the west. If 
I remember correctly, there were four layers of each, giving 
the face of the rock a peculiar and grotesque appearance, as 
if it had been painted dark gray and cream colour in stripes. 
This formation ceased when we reached Hoskin-ness, a point 
or peninsula, so called from its resemblance to a Boatscoop 
turned bottom upwards ; the Norske name signifying Boat- 
scoop Point. This beautiful Point exhibits, in a very mark- 
ed degree, a feature which is prevalent here, viz., the ap- 
pearance of terraces, formed by the subsiding of the waters, 
seemingly at some very remote period. Soon after passing 
this, we reached Kaafiord ; but, late as the hour was, our 
godson's father insisted on our going to his house, that we 
might partake of a supper that had been prepared for us. 
All sorts of good things were set out, and to these our long 
aquatic excursion inclined us to do ample justice. Ptarmi- 
gan, killed last Christmas, and kept for use by being laid in 
salt, Reindeer meat, various preparations of cream and ex- 
cellent wine graced the board. While regaling ourselves on 
these dainties, Mr. J olm Crowe came in with a budget of 
news, the principal article of which was, that the Harriet 
would not sail till Tuesday. So, wishing health, happiness, 
and long life to my little godson, we departed, leaving the 
merry party to enjoy themselves. 

August loth and 1 6th, Monday and Tuesday. — My time 
was now filled up in finishing sketches, for I could not go to 
any distance from Mr. Crowe's house, the summons to sail 
being daily and hourly expected. 



102 



JOURNAL OF A TOUR 



August 17th, Wednesday.— Another delay in the sailing of 
the Harriet : some reindeer, a cow, and several sheep were to 
be taken on board, together with the requisite provision for 
those creatures. 

Mr. Walker, we found to our great regret, had determined 
to go home overland by Torneo. Nor was it Mr. Crowe's 
intention, nor that of any of the friends who came out with us, 
to return in the Harriet with Mr. Christy and myself. Taking 
leave now occupied no small portion of my time, and my last 
call was on the little son of Mr. Aasberg, in whom I felt a 
deep interest, both because his parents' affections were cen- 
tered on this their only child, and because of the extreme 
kindness which those parents had shown to me, and which 
now at parting was expressed in the liveliest terms of grati- 
tude for my attention to their little boy. 

August 18th, Thursday. — Off for England! After many 
delays we got on board at six, p.m., many of our friends ac- 
companying us as far as Hoskin-ness ; when, after many a 
" Lykpaa Reise" on their parts, and many thanks and adieus 
on ours, we were soon carried by a favourable wind, out of 
sight of the hospitable shores of Norway. 

Greater kindness no strangers could receive anywhere than 
we had met with in Norway, and, as long as I live, it will 
always be a pleasure to me to look back on the few, but 
happy days, which I have spent there. 

Though my little Tour may be said to have ended when I 
left the country, still many circumstances occurred to me be- 
fore reaching Glasgow ; much water was yet to be crossed, 
and far different from my passage out was my voyage home. 
From the day we quitted Norway, all sorts of disasters began 



TO THE NORTHERN PARTS OF NORWAY. 



103 



to fall upon us. In the first place, I may mention that our 
vessel, which was about 230 tons burthen, carried home full 
thirty tons more of copper ore than she ought to have done ; 
her deck was not more than a foot and a half above the actual 
water-line at the waist, and of all cargoes this ore is the most 
unmanageable ; it lies in a heap, amidships, straining every 
timber, and causing the vessel to labour violently. 

From the day after our departure we had the severest 
storms, driving us right off our course, and causing the vessel 
to make a great deal of water ; and this weather continued, 
without intermission, to the 1st of September, when we reached 
Shetland. 

The first circumstance which disturbed the equanimity of 
my temper, and really gave me vexation, was, when upon the 
leaking of the bull's-eye of my berth, I changed my cot for 
another, which I hoped would prove drier, and had snugly 
ensconced myself in it on the leeside, we shipped a heavy sea 
over the windward bows, which, rushing aft, shattered the 
cabin skylight, and sent a whole cataract of salt water down 
below. Mixed with this flood, came the Duke of Bedford's 
willows, which had been packed in air-tight cases, made on 
Mr. Ward's excellent principle, together with the contents of 
two Norske baskets full of the same trees, their roots set into 
a mixture of Sphagnum and earth; dirt and mould from 
Mr. Christy's boxes of living plants, which, to be out of 
the reach of spray, we had sagely stowed aloft; broken 
glass and pieces of rubbish, all rushed into the cabin and 
landed on my bed. I started up and prepared to flee, when 
a second irruption compelled me to succumb; so, dripping- 
wet, I crawled into the state cabin, where Mr. Christy slept, 
and having dried myself as well as I could, I got into his bed, 



104 



JOURNAL OF A TOUR 



The next morning it was disheartening, indeed, to see the 
damage that had been done. As the vessel rolled from side 
to side I heard minerals rattling on the cabin floor, which was 
covered with water ; a considerable number of my sketches 
were reduced to the state of so much dirty rotten paper : 
skins of animals — my Snowy Owl, (Stor-yogle,) — Squirrels' 
skins — Reindeer skins — my Paesks — book of notes, and my 
gnns in their cases, were floating about. The Duke of Bed- 
ford's willows were, to my great vexation, as I before said, all 
mined ; and two carriers* baskets, (see p. 51.) filled with 
growing plants, which we had lashed up to the crosstrees, to 
be, as we innocently thought, out of danger, carried off bodily ! 
On deck the destruction was even greater than below ; the 
boats were stove, and the galley knocked to pieces ; and two 
of the Reindeer which we were taking with us to England, 
died. Some of my articles I could not get at, but all that I 
did see was not certainly in a state to afford me hope concern- 
ing; the rest. I could not dress myself, my garments were all 
soaked, and the storm was too violent to allow of any fire being 
lighted to dry them, except a small one, which smoked so as 
almost to suffocate us, and would hardly boil a pint of water, 
besides being every now and then entirely quenched by the 
salt water rushing down the orifice of the funnel, which was 
now levelled with the deck. True, indeed, is the remark 
which I have seen somewhere, that " those who would not 
starve at sea, must eat with their eyes shut." The destruction 
of the galley reduced us to very bad fare ; often we had neither 
breakfast, dinner, nor supper ; and such filthy food as was set 
before us I had never beheld before, — all was filled with rein- 
deers' hairs from the skins on board, which had got into the 



TO THE NORTHERN PARTS OF NORWAY. 



105 



water-butts, and, indeed, into every thing else. Our meals, 
when we could get any, consisted of very salt bacon, a few 
bad potatoes, mouldy crumbs of biscuit, and a little rancid 
butter. 

The Aurora Borealis used sometimes to blaze through the 
black clouds of these stormy nights with great splendour ; it 
failed, however, to dissipate the gloom and " winter of our 
discontent," this phenomenon not being ominous of better 
weather. In Norway I had often enquired whether it was 
ever heard; some said one thing, and some said another; 
but the most rational statement in reply was, — that if any 
sound did accompany the Northern Lights, it was probably 
attributable to the rising wind, of which this phenomenon is 
commonly a precursor, and that the noise much resembles 
that of a rushing gale. Even this may perhaps be but ima- 
ginary ; in the stillest weather, if a person stands attentively 
to listen, nothing is easier than to think one can perceive a 
rushing" or rustling- sound. 

Three or four of our crew were laid up with over-work, 
bad fare, and wet beds ; nothing was dry in the whole ship. 
Two more of the Reindeer died. It had been curious to watch 
the habits of these creatures ; their fondness for salt is quite 
remarkable ; on shore they will follow for a long way any 
person who only shows them some ; they also lick up urine 
greedily ; and it certainly seems, as the Laplanders always 
say, that the Reindeer, if not permitted to drink of the sea 
water every summer, will die. In the present instance, how- 
ever, the poor animals got too much of it. 

At last we made the Shetland Isles, and intended running 
into Lerwick ; but, meeting a fishing-boat, it piloted us into 



106 



JOURNAL OF A TOUR 



Balta Sund, in North Unst. I was vastly delighted when I 
heard the well-known braid Scots of the boatmen, and already 
thought myself quite at home. We had not entered the bay 
many minutes, when Mr. Edmondston, the proprietor of North 
Unst, and of several other isles, sent us a pressing invitation 
to come and breakfast with him, which we gladly accepted, 
as soon as we heard that no ladies were to be present. So, 
shaving ourselves, and putting on the most decent clothing 
that our wardrobe afforded, (on which, however, I had previ- 
ously to exercise my sartorial abilities for more than an hour,) 
we went ashore, and met with the kindest reception from this 
hospitable Lord of the Isles, who, though he knew nothing of 
us, yet strove to make us feel quite at ease, by lavishing on 
the sea-beaten strangers the true Highland hospitality. When 
he found out my name he promised to introduce me to his 
brother, Dr. Edmondston, who, several years before, had been 
acquainted with our family. 

After breakfasting we went over to Balta Island, directly 
opposite Balta Sund, where I hoped to kill some birds. I ob- 
tained a few T ringaSf &c, but after having, for a long time ? 
chased a number of Rock Pigeons, I was unable to get within 
shot of them. I was struck with the immense flocks of Star- 
lings flying about, several pairs of them came down Mr. 
Edmondston's bedroom chimney, and were captured and safely 
deposited in one of Mr, Christy's dilapidated and vacant plant- 
cases. 

During dinner, Dr. Edmondston, who had arrived, proposed 
that next day, while the ship was refitting, we should take a 
ride to the northernmost part of Shetland to see the Skerries,, 
which are a few insulated rocks, constituting the most northern 
extremity of Her Britannic Majesty's dominions. 



TO THE NORTHERN PARTS OF NORWAY. 



107 



On the 2d September, Mr. Christy, Dr. Edmondston, and 
myself, mounting three of the Laird's shelties trotted off on 
these sturdy little animals, our feet nearly touching" the ground. 
We first visited some Chrome mines, where this mineral is 
found existing in the form of Cliromate of Iron ; and then 
proceeded to see a relic of antiquity, being one of those curi- 
ous (so called Druidical) circles, in which it is supposed that 
judgment used to be held by the Chiefs. This was in a very 
perfect state, and consisted of four outside raised circles, formed 
of the coarse Serpentine stone, which prevails in the southern 
parts of North Unst, covered with turf. The diameter is 
about fourteen paces, and in the middle is a cavity about three 
quarters of a foot deep, with the earth raised around it. Other 
circles of the same kind exist in this island, but none in 
equally good preservation. 

After viewing this curious object, we went to Burrowforth- 
ness, crossing a spot where the serpentine rock terminates 
abruptly, and peat moss commences just as suddenly. This 
appearance is highly extraordinary, and the distinction very 
well marked ; and as if to render it still more visible, a wall, 
which is before a house, is built, where the serpentine prevails, 
of that rock ; while, where it has its foundation on the peat 
moss, turf is employed in its construction. It seems as if some 
gigantic knife had shorn away the rock, and laid it against a sea 
of peat-moss. If our path had been hitherto rough and stony, 
shaking us in our saddles, and threatening to make us sore 
and stiff ere our ride was half over, it was here deep, uncer- 
tain and yielding. Every now and then our poor ponies 
plunged up to their bellies in soft mud ; but we had only to 
stick fast to their backs, and the sagacious animals soon found 
the best way of extricating themselves. 



108 



JOURNAL OF A TOUR 



Upon Burrowforthness, Mr. Edmondston keeps a preserve of 
Skua Gulls. Though not a scientific man himself, he thought 
it a pity that so beautiful and rare a bird should be exter- 
minated by a mercenary set of people, who sometimes come 
and shoot them in great numbers, for sale in London. This 
spirited gentleman, who well deserves the thanks of all Na- 
turalists, built therefore a wall across the point where these 
birds breed, and employs a man to watch that none of them 
shall be killed. I am happy to add that his plan promises 
to succeed perfectly ; at first there were but two pairs of 
Skua Gulls, and now there are twenty. I did not expect to 
get near enough to see any of them, but a young bird hardly 
able to fly, and an old one, apparently its parent, permitted 
me to approach within twelve or fourteen yards of them. 
This Gull builds upon the ground, simply scratching away 
the grass, and in the cavity, for it can hardly be called a nest, 
it deposits two eggs, very similar, both in size and markings, 
to those of the Black-backed Gull. The appearance of the Skau 
Gull when flying is, I think, best expressed by saying that 
it bears a strong resemblance to an immense Wood Pigeon, 
their colour, shape, and proportions being very much alike. 

Mr. Edmondston is an indefatigable Seal-hunter, and has 
killed several specimens of the Great Seal, Phoca barbata, 
which is not unfrequently seen here. I forgot to take a note 
of the dimensions of one that he killed, and were I to state 
its length, circumference^ &c, from memory, I might pro- 
bably commit blunders ; besides, the size was so enormous, 
that accurate particulars would be needful to ensure credence. 

Rabbits were here in immense abundance, reminding me 
of the expression in the civ. Psalm, " the stony rocks are a 



TO THE NORTHERN PARTS OF NORWAY. 



109 



refuge for the conies," for these little creatures were seen in 
all directions, darting- about the cliffs, and harbouring in spots 
where I cannot imagine how they obtain grass or anything 
to satisfy their hunger. 

The view from the extreme point of North Unst, where we 
now stood, is very fine. Beyond us lay the Skerries, consist- 
ing of several, apparently, bare and naked black rocks, rais- 
ing their crests above the roaring waves, and "collared with a 
mane of foam." One of these rocky islets bore a considerble 
resemblance to the head and shoulders of some animal, reared 
above the water. Upon one or two of them, Dr. Edmondston 
told us, sheep were fed ; but, in the first place, it puzzled me 
to imagine how sheep could be landed there, nor how, if they 
were landed, they could find shelter and obtain food ; for ex- 
cepting the sea-weed that fringed their precipitous sides, no 
tinge of green, indicating verdure, was visible to my eyes. 
Above and around them the Gannets were soaring in great 
numbers, and plunging from immense heights into the sea. 
The form of the head, the density and rigid nature of the 
plumage which characterize this bird, render it peculiarly 
suited to bear uninjured the shock of darting downward into 
the agitated waves from such a height. I watched the Gan- 
nets while in the act of doing this, and saw them, having 
balanced themselves in the air, turn their heads down, stiff 
and straight, and in this attitude descend, quick as thought, 
dashing the angry spray on each side, and never missing their 
prey. In the Penny Magazine is a representation of these 
birds plunging, but it is not accurate, for the neck is never 
curved, as it appears there, but is always kept perfectly 
straight. The fishermen augur a good herring season from 



110 



JOURNAL OF A TOUR 



the presence of these Gannets, and, indeed, the poor Shet- 
landers stand in much need of one this autumn. Their last 
harvest was a failure, and so was the fishery, and the present 
year, I am sorry to say, affords but a very poor prospect. 

After sitting on the Point a considerable time, we retraced 
our steps, and as we passed a village a woman came out, 
bringing three children dreadfully afflicted with Tinea capitis, 
for Dr. Edmondston to see. One of them, especially, was a 
most disgusting object, the entire scalp being covered with a 
thick scab like a plaster. I learned that the disease is 
hereditary in that family. 

On coming home 1 was surprised to see so many tame 
Gulls, Lams canus and L. argentatus, sitting and running 
about the houses ; and found, on inquiry, that Mr. Edmond- 
ston extends his protection to these birds also. We had no 
sooner, indeed, entered Balta Sund, than we were requested 
not to shoot them. 

September 3rd.— .This day we again set sail, in spite of Mr. 
Edmondston's prognostications about the weather, and his 
brother's and my bulletins respecting the health of the crew, 
none of which were very favourable. 

Several Shetland Ponies were taken on board the ship, 
which were paid for in bread, at the rate of thirty shillings 
to two pounds each, the most beautiful and the smallest jet 
black creatures I ever beheld, perfectly smooth and sleek. 
The poor Shetlanders refused every kind of payment for these 
animals, excepting the ship's biscuit, which they received 
most eagerly. 

Dr. Edmondston brought his two sons on board to see the 
remaining Reindeer. The eldest is a particularly intelligent 



TO THE NORTHERN PARTS OF NORWAY. Ill 

boy, and passionately fond of Natural History; I was shown 
some of his attempts at drawing-, highly characteristic of the 
objects for which they were intended. Since the first edition 
of this Journal was printed, that is in the Autumn of 1837, 
my father received a very interesting- communication from 
Dr. Edmondston, consisting of specimens of a remarkable 
variety of the rare Lathy rus maritimus, (Pisum L.,) which 
is now published in the 4th edition of Brit. Flora, as L. mari- 
timus (3. by Dr. Graham ; of an Arenaria, quite new to Britain, 
the Arenaria Norvegica, (see Brit. Fl. ed. 4, p. 1 82,) discov- 
ered by his son in Shetland, together with a catalogue of the 
phnogamons plants of those most northern islands, the " Ultima 
Thule" of the British groupe. Of this list Mr. Edmondston 
observes, " imperfect as it may be, it is the only thing like a 
commencement of a <e Flora Shetlandica" which we have ; and 
it is the production of a boy of eleven years of age, who never 
attended to Botany till within these few months, and who 
possessed only two books, " Willdnenow's Introduction/'' and 
"M'Gillivray's edition of Withering," and had no other as- 
sistance whatever." Under these circumstances, I have thought 
the catalogue worth inserting, and I trust it will be a stimulus 
to this young gentleman's future exertions in the cause of 
Botany. 

List of Plants observed in the Island of Unst, Shetland, dur- 
ing the summer of 1837, by Thomas Edmondston: — 

MONANDRIA MONOGYNIA. 

Hippuris vulgaris ; common in deep muddy burns ; specimens 

gathered in May. 
Zostera marina ; grows in sand around the coast ; totally immersed 

in sea- water; almost always used for bedding.* 

* This plant is applied to the same purpose in Iceland, 



112 



JOURNAL OF A TOUR 



IGYNIA. 

Callitriche verna ; in muddy ditches ; July. 

DlANDRIA MoNOGYNIA. 

Veronica officinalis ; rare, on serpentine formation. 
Pinguicula vulgaris; common; June. 

DlGYNIA. 

Anthoxanthum odoratum ; common ; June. 

Triandria Monogynia. 
Iris pseudacorus ; common by the sides of burns. 
Schcenus nigricans ; rare, on serpentine ; July. 
Scirpus lacustris; rare, Loch of Lund, used by coopers ; August. 
Elocharis palustris ; common, sand of Bursafirth ; July. 
Eriophorum vaginatum ; common ; June. 
Nardus stricta ; common, Hermaness ; June. 

DlGYNIA. 

Alopecurus geniculatus ; common ; May. 
Arundo armaria ; rare, sand of Bursafirth. 

- colorata ; common, Bursafirth ; July. 
Agrostis vulgaris ; common ; July. 

. setacea ;* rare ; June. 

. alba ; rare, Bursafirth ; June. 

Aira flexuosa ; rare, Hermaness ; July. 

prcecox ; common ; May and June. 

Melica ccerulea ; common ; May. 
i unifiora ; rare, Baltasund ; June. 

Sesleria cawulea ; rare, Woodwick ; July. 
Poa trivialis ; common ; Baltasund. 

— — pratensis ; rare ; the most beautiful of our grasses, except per- 
haps Briza media ; Baltasund ; middle of August, 
i annua ; common, Baltasund. 
< fluitans ; common, Bursafirth. 

Briza media; very rare, serpentine formation, gathered 12th August, 
1836. 

Festuca duriuscula ; common ; Baltasund ; June. 

- elatior ; rare, Bursafirth. 

vivipara ; common, Baltasund ; June. 

Bromus mollis ; common ; 24th May. 
Avena fatua ; rare, Bursafirth ; July. 

Elymus arenarius; rare, sand of Bursafirth, used along with Arundo 

arenaria, for twisting ropes and making brooms, &c. 
Triticum repens ; very common ; July. 

Lolium perenne ; hardly indigenous, but extensively cultivated for 
hay. 

* This is probably an error. H. 



TO THE NORTHERN PARTS OF NORWAY. 1 [3 



Tetrandria Monogynia. 
Scabiosa succisa ; common ; August. 
Galium Apnrine ; rare, Baltasund ; July. 
Galium saxatile ; rare, Hermaness ; July. 
Plantago major ; common ; August. 
— — — — maritima ; common ; June. 

-= hnceolnta ; common ; May. 

Coronopus ; not rare, Swinaness ; May, 

Tetragynia. 

Potamegoton no tans ; common. 

■ lanceolata; rare, Locli of Cliff ; July. 

Pentandria Monogynia. 

Lycopsis arvensis ; common in corn-fields, Baltasund ; July. 
Myosotis arvensis ; common ; June. 

capztosa ; common in muddy pools, Nor wick ; July. 

Primula vulgaris ; very rare, Links of Lund ; May, 1836. 

Menyanthes trifoliata; common in deep burns — Burn of Valafeild — 
used as a medicine by the people of Shetland, being very astrin- 
gent; June. 

Lithospermum maritimum ; rare, Norwick. 

Jasione montana ; not common ; July. 

Viola canina ; July. 

■ tricolor ; common ; July. 
Gentiana campestris ; common ; July. 
Amarella ; rare, Balta Island ; July. 

Hydrocotyle vulgaris ; common in marshy places, Bursafirth ; June. 

Sanicula Europma ; rare, Woodwick ; July. 

Ligusticum Scoticum ; rare, Bursafirth ; July. 

Angelica sylvestris ; rare ; June. 

Heracleum Sphondylium ; rare. 

Chaerophyllum sylvestre ; very common ; July. 

Alsine media ; rare, Baltasund ; May. 

Pentagynia. 

Statice Armeria ; common, Baltasund ; July. 
Linum catharticum ; rare, on serpentine ; July. 

Hexandria Monogynia. 

Scilla verna ; very common, especially this year, probably because 

it was unusually dry ; May. 
Hyacinthus Nonscriptus ; very rare, probably only the outcast of 

gardens. 

Anthericum ossifragum ; common, Woodwick ; July. 

Juncus squarrosus ; very common on heaths ; July. 

— uliginosus ; grows in wetter places than the former; August. 

p 



114 



JOURNAL OF A TOUR 



Juncus effusus ; common on heaths, used for twisting into ropes, &e. 
Luzula campestris ; common ; May. 
sylvatica ; rare, Hermaness ; June. 

Hexandria Trigynia. 
Rumex crispus ; too common ; June. 
Triglochin palustre ; rare, on serpentine. 

OCTANDRIA MONOGYNIA. 

Erica cinerea ; not common, on gneiss ; July. 
. — - tetralix ; common ; July. 

. vulgaris ; very common, on gneiss chiefly ; July, 

Vaccinium Myrtillus ; very rare, Hermaness; June. 
Epilobium angustifolium ; very rare, Bursafirth; July. 
- — — — palustre ; rare, Woodwick ; June. 

Trigynia. 

Polygonum aviculare ; common ; July. 

. Persicaria ; not rare, Bursafirth ; August. 

Decandria Trigynia. 
Silene maritima ; common on the sea-shore. 

. acaulis ; common on serpentine ; May. 

Stellaria media ; common ; August. 

Arenaria peploides ; common on the sea-shore, both on sand and 
gravel ; May. 

. Norvegica, Hook. Brit. Fl. ed. 4. p. 182; rare, July; 

(New to Britain.) 
i marina ; rare, on gravel ; June. 

Decandria Pentagynia. 

Lychnis dioica ; common in shady places ; June. 

Flos Cuculi ; common in meadows ; July. 

Cerastium viscosum ; common ; July. 

. vulgatum ; not common ; June. 

— • alpinum ; very rare, on serpentine ; June. 

Spergula arvensis ; too common ; July. 

ICOSANDRIA MONOGYNIA. 

Spiraea Ulmaria ; not common, Cliff ; July. 

POEYGYNIA. 

Rosa canina ; very rare, Bursafirth ; July. 
Comarum palustre ; rare, Woodwick; July. 
Tormentilla officinalis ; very common ; July. 
Potentilla anserina ; very common ; July. 

POLYANDRIA MONOGYNIA, 

Papaver Rhceas ; very rare, Shaw ; August. 
. dubium ; very rare, Baltasund ; July. 



TO THE NORTHERN PARTS OF NORWAY. 



115 



POLYGYNIA. 

Ranunculus acris ; very common ; July. 

Ficaria ; not common ; May. 

Flimmuli ; common in wet places ; July. 

■ repens ; not common ; June. 

Caltha palustris; common ; July. 

DlDYNAMIA GYMNOSPERMIA. 

Thymus Serpyllum ; common ; August. 
Galeopsis Tetrahit ; very common ; July. 
Prunella vulgaris ; common; July. 
Lamium purpureum ; common; August. 

Angiospermia. 
Euphrasia officinalis ; very common ; August. 
Rhinanthus Crista galli ; common; July. 
Pedicularis syhatica ; common ; July. 
— palustris ; not common, Cliff; July. 

Tetkaydynamia Siliculosa. 
Bunias Cakile ; not common, sand of Sanwick ; June. 
Thlaspi Bursa Past07'is ; common ; July. 
Cochlearia officinalis ; rare, Bursafirth ; June. 

— ■ Danica ; very rare, Baltasund ; Ma'y . 

Draba incana ; very rare, on serpentine ; July. 

SlEIQUOSA. 

Cardamine pratensis ; common in wet places ; June. 
Arabis petrcea ; very rare, on serpentine gravel ; July. 
Coronopus didyma ; rare, on mica ; May. 
Sinapis arvensis ; too common ; June. 
Raphanus Raphanistrum ; rare ; May. 

MONADELPHIA DECANDKIA. 

Geranium molle; rare, on gneiss ; June. 

DlADEI/PHIA OCTANDKIA. 

Polygala vulgaris ; common ; June. 

Decandria. 

Anthyllis vulneraria ; common ; May. 

Orobus tuberosus ; rare. 

Lathyrus pratensis ; common ; July. 

maritimus ; j3. (Graham, in Hook. Br. Fl. ed. 4. p. 270,) 

found by me, on the 25th June, growing in sand at Bursafirth, 
and afterwards collected by Dr. M'Nab. 

Vicia Cracca ; common, Bursafirth ; July. 

Trifolium me dium ; not common, Bursafirth ; July. 
— repens ; common ; June. 



116 



JOURNAL OF A TOUR 



POLYABEEPHIA POLYANBRIA. 

Hypericum pulchrum ; not common ; July. 

Syngenesia 2Equalis. 

Sonchus arvensis ; common in cornfields ; August. 
■ oleraceus ; rare ; August. 

Leontodon Taraxacum; rare ; May. 

- — palustre ; common, Woodwick ; July. 

autumnales ; common ; July. 

Hieracium maculatum ; rare, Bursafirth ; July. 

dubium (?) do. do. 

Carduus lanceolatus ; common ; August. 

Syngenesia Superflua. 

Tanacetum vulgare ; not common ; August. 

Artemisia vulgaris ; common ; July. 

Gnaphalium dioicum ; common ; June. 

Tussilago Petasites ; rare, Bursafirth ; August. 

Senecio vulgaris ; common; July. 

Solidago Virga-aurea ; not common, Bursafirth; July. 

Bellis perennis ; very common. 

Chrysanthemum Leucanthemum; not common. 

Segetum ; rare ; August. 

Pyrethrum inodorum ; very common ; June. 
Achilleea Millefolium ; common ; August. 
, Ptarmica ; rare, Woodwick ; July. 

Gynandkia Monandkia. 

Orchis mascula ; common ; June. 

maculata ; not very common ; June. 

Habenaria viridis ; rare, on serpentine ; July. 

MON(ECIA MONANDRIA. 

Euphorbia helioscopia ; common in corn-fields. 

Triandeia. 

Sparganium natans ; rare, Loch of Cliff" ; July. 
Carex flava ; not very common ; July. 

fulva ; very common on the serpentine formation ; August. 

- binervis ; not common ; August. 
• ampullacea ; not common, burn of Valafield. 

Tetranbria. 

Urtica dioica; common, July. 

DlCECIA DlANBRIA. 

Salix repens ; not common : June. 
i aquatica ; rare, Bursafirth. 



TO THE NORTHERN FARTS OF NORWAY. J 17 

Triandria. 

Empetrum nigrum ; common on heaths ; July. 

DlOCIA OCTANBRIA. 

Rhodiola rosea ; very rare, Bursafirth ; June. 

POLYGAMIA MoN(ECIA. 

Atriplex patula ; not common ; August. 

laciniata ; common on the sea shore ; July. 

Holcus mollis ; rare, Bursafirth. 

. lanatus, very common ; June. 

avenaceus ; not common ; August. 

To resume my narrative: — on the 3rd of September a 
brisk breeze sprung" up, and with mutual hopes of meeting 
again, we dashed forward towards home, and our kind friends 
Dr. Edmondston and his two sons, soon dropped astern. We 
found, however, that our dangers were not half over ; storms 
and gales still awaited us. The alarming consciousness that 
we were carrying a far too heavy cargo, of a very unmanage- 
able material, kept the Captain in a constant state of fidget 
and distress, and soon every thing was in a worse condition 
than ever. Twice we were as nearly wrecked as possible — 
three hands laid up with illness — the sails were almost all 
shivered- — and the destruction on deck was completed by our 
boats being stoved, and the guy of the mainboom smashing 
first the wheel and then a tiller, with which we supplied its 
place. The latter accident occurred as we were off Fitful 
Head, having that dangerous shore but a short distance on 
our lee, while we were for a considerable time quite at the 
mercy of the weather, tide, &c, without power of guiding the 
vessel's motion, while the wind blew a perfect hurricane. 

On the 9th of September we reached the Butt of Lewis, and 
this was the first day on which I could look about me and 



318 



JOURNAL OF A TOUR 



ascertain the extent of the mischief done. Another Deer died, 
and another man was laid up from hard work, and want of suffi- 
cient and properly cooked food. From the beds of the poor fel- 
lows in the forecastle I could wring the water, and though we, 
cabin passengers, were somewhat better off, yet our clothes were 
constantly damp, and the sea making its way through the cre- 
vices of the deck into our berths, and oozing in at every seam of 
the ship, we could keep nothing dry, nor could we obtain any 
warm and comfortable victuals. The bad weather obliged us 
to put into a bay in the island of Harris, where we lay for a 
night ; and finding there a Russian vessel bound for Greenock, 
with timber, I hurried to collect together all the goods of my 
own upon which 1 could lay my hands, trusting to Mr. 
Christy's kindness to find, during the discharge of the cargo, 
whatever I might leave behind. So, going on board the 
homeward ship, that I might see if I could not proceed to 
Greenock in her, I discovered her to be so dreadfully filthy — 
so perfectly worthy of the character for dirt that all Russian 
vessels bear, that I could not endure the idea of taking my 
passage in company with as many " creeping things" as ever 
inhabited Noah's Ark. 

Still the wind, though its violence had abated, continued 
adverse, and our provisions ran short We had counted on 
finding a case of bread, and so we did ; but the water, having, 
during the storms, got into the mate's berth, it had oozed 
thence into the bread-locker, so that all our biscuit was 
spoiled. A somewhat similar disaster had befallen our slender 
stock of water, and we had to wash down our sorry mess of 
dirty crumbs, boiled in sugar, with claret ! A vessel which 
we met, though nearly in the same distress with ourselves 



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PARTS OF NORWAY. 



119 



spared us a dozen biscuits and a few potatoes, but no water. 
Mr. Christy and I made the fortunate discovery of a box of 
Malaga raisins in the Captain's locker, which served to ap- 
pease our hunger as long as they lasted. 

Saturday, 17th September. — Last night we came in sight 
of the Mumbles Light-house, near Swansea ; but though we 
made signals for a pilot, none could be had till this morning. 
Anxious to be on shore, " we cast anchor and wished for the 
day." By seven o'clock a steamer came out and towed us 
into the Swansea river, and very agreeably was I surprised 
by the aspect of this town and the surrounding country. I 
had expected that every thing would be blasted by the fumes 
of copper ; on the contrary, I beheld a very neat town, sur- 
rounded by hills, the sides of which, facing the south, were 
beautifully wooded and protected from the noxious fumes of 
sulphur and arsenic. A glance up the valley, however, dis- 
closed a strikingly different scene ; the pestilential white smoke 
which hung over it, destroyed all vegetation, so that hardly 
even a blade of grass dared lift itself above the sterile and 
blasted .soil. 

Mr. Christy and I took a walk upon the sands to survey the 
country, and returned home through the market, which was 
large, and seemed very well supplied. It was a novel and 
interesting sight to me to observe the women all wearing hats 
similar to those of the men. Many of them carried pitchers 
of a curious form, nicely balanced upon their heads. 1 noticed 
more than one, whose shoes and stockings were borne in her 
hands, instead of on her feet ; quite after the Scotch fashion. 

When we went back to the Harriet, we found that our 
Captain's father, who resides at Swansea, had come on board, 



120 JOURNAL OF A TOUR 

and kindly insisted on our staying at his Louse. Thither we 
had our lug-gage removed, after some petty difficulties ; for 
several of our Norwegian curiosities were charged with a 
heavy duty, and others forbidden to pass at all. A little 
management, however, settled this affair, and we gladly pur- 
sued our way to Mr. Moyse's house. 

September 19th, Monday. — At ten o'clock, our Captain, 
with a relation of his, together with Mr. Christy, and myself, 
took a two-horsed vehicle, called a Fly, and rode twenty miles, 
to a place, by name Margham, celebrated for possessing a 
noble oak forest. 

In our drive, we passed the Copper works, from which pro- 
ceeded strong fumes of garlic, as well as sulphur. So powerful 
was the impregnation of arsenic, that the tops of many of the 
furnace chimneys were whitened by its condensing upon them. 
It is a singular fact, that while vegetation is destroyed all 
around by these exhalations, no prejudicial effects seem to be 
produced upon animal life ; the workmen being more healthy 
and longer lived than those in the town of Swansea. 

A plan has been contrived by J. H. Vivian, Esq., INI. P. for 
Swansea, for condensing a portion of the arsenical vapors. 
This consists in leading a number of the furnace-flues under 
ground for one-eighth of a mile, or thereabouts, keeping water 
always upon the tube till it reaches a large and lofty chimney, 
where it is permitted to escape. Two advantages accrue from 
this plan. A very evident difference exists between the quan- 
tity of arsenic emitted by those flues which rise immediately 
from the furnaces (in these the white smoke is extremely pre- 
dominant,) and by those which are connected with them by a 
long intervening tube. Again, when these flues, which are 



TO THE NORTHERN FARTS OF NORWAY. 



121 



built of brick, are opened and cleaned, which is done every 
two or three years, the quantity of white arsenic, or, as it is 
more properly called, arsenious acid, which is taken out, 
fetches a considerable price; besides which, there is also 
found deposited some very pure and particularly valuable 
copper ; all which, were it not for this contrivance, would be 
lost. 

Before reaching Margham, we passed a chapel of Welsh 
Jumpers, called Zoar. While our dinner was preparing, we 
went to visit Margham Abbey, as the mansion of Mr. Talbot 
is called ; it is placed in a most enviable site ; the splendid 
park including a portion of the noble Oak forest that 1 have 
mentioned. Such children of the soil for stature and luxuriant 
developement I had never beheld. Planted at exactly equal 
distances, and apparently at the same date, these giant Oaks, 
like so many twin brethren, 

" grew in beauty, side by side," 

forming long-drawn alleys, through the vistas of which the 
eye might look till the distance seemed to dwindle to a point, 
their tufted foliage spreading a canopy overhead. 

The house itself is built in an indifferent taste, and none of 
the apartments are handsome, though furnished in a costly 
manner. I admired some of the paintings, which were much 
in the style of Vandyke ; several sea-pieces, also, struck me 
as being very bold in conception and exquisitely finished, but 
here the more experienced eye of our Captain detected so 
many errors, that 1 was afraid to bestow any praises upon 
them. 

From Margham Abbey we proceeded to the church, in 

Q 



122 



JOURNAL OF A TOUR 



order to see the monuments of the Talbot family, which were 
all executed in the stiffest old style " of sculptured Knight 
and Ladye fair." Thence after dining, we went to a sort of 
little Inn, where a Revel, as such a junkettingis here called, 
was going on. Great numbers of Welsh lads and lasses 
were collected, eating, drinking, and dancing, and this frolic 
was to continue for two or three days, or perhaps a week. A 
sort of Reel was in course of performance while we were 
there. 

The fondness of the lower classes of Welsh for chequered 
garments is quite remarkable, reminding me of the Highland 
partiality for tartan, it is the all-prevailing garb in every 
variety of colour, and size, and arrangement of pattern, 
among the peasantry, both men and women. 

Our drive home to Swansea was very beautiful, past a 
great number of sweet villas and country-houses. The 
neighbourhood of the town, however, presented a total change, 
from the copper works and arsenical smoke blasting all 
vegetation. There are a great number of coal-pits about 
Swansea, and a good deal of the coal, which is of an excel- 
lent quality, is sent abroad, especially to France. 

September 21st, Wednesday. — This morning early Mr. 
Christy started for Bristol. I rose and saw him off, and very 
dull and deserted did I feel all the rest of the day, after the 
departure of so kind and amiable a companion, with whom 
I had spent day and night (for he was generally my bed- 
fellow) for more than three months. 

After breakfast, I took an omnibus to the Mumbles, a dis- 
tance of seven or eight miles, This is a beautiful spot, and 
much4requented as a watering-place, the houses being placed 



TO THE NORTHERN PARTS OF NORWAY. 



123 



at the foot of the cliff on which the light-house is built. 
Thence I proceeded to Oystermouth castle, which is a fine 
and extensive ruin, of the history of which I could obtain no 
information from several persons whom I asked about it, 
though all agreed that Oliver Cromwell dismantled it. So true 
is it that " men's ill deeds we register in marble while 
" sand" is the vehicle in which their better ones are handed 
to posterity. From the cliffs of the Mumbles I obtained a 
beautiful view of the adjacent country, which is rich and 
finely wooded with Oaks and Scotch Fir, after which I re- 
turned to Swansea, where I engaged a berth in the Moun- 
taineer steamer for Liverpool, next morning, anxious to reach 
home as quickly as possible. 

A passage of about thirty-six hours brought me from 
Swansea to Liverpool, where I visited the Museum, and 
walked about to see the town, my dress being far too shabby 
to allow me to call on any of the numerous individuals with 
whom I was acquainted. Very wearily did my solitary 
hours pass during the interval of the next steamer's starting 
for Glasgow. I endeavoured to beguile them by revising my 
journal, and finishing some sketches, and on Saturday morn- 
ing, (September 24th) I sailed from Liverpool, and had the 
happiness to reach home by noon on the following day, thank- 
ful for all 1 had seen during my wanderings, but most thank- 
ful to behold the " long familiar household faces" once again. 



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